If electricity is faster than the speed of sound why does it not make a sonic boom?
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I would assume that under “speed of electricity” you mean “speed of electric field propagation”.
And important thing here is: *electric field does not push air*. And where would a sonic boom come from, then?
To get it we need something which does push the air to move above speed of sound (a very fast plane, a very hot (and thus very fast-expanding) gas, a volume of gas under very high pressure suddenly depressurized). Nothing like that we have – no sonic boom.
It’s not pushing air out of the way to make it move. It’s just electrons pushing each other down the wire.
Even when lightning strikes, the thunder isn’t a sonic boom, it’s a pressure wave from the sudden heating of the air the charges moved through.
Electricity make a sonic boom everytime there is a lightning strike. Movement displacement of air to supersonic speeds makes the noise.
That electricity in your wires is not usually exposed to air. When it is (a short or a arc) there is definitely a noise sometimes quite loud. Air being displaced makes the waves of sound.
um, not a physicist, but the top answer seems a misconception. Electricity is part of the electro-magentic spectrum, so never mind the speed of sound – it travels at the speed of light.
So it doesn’t make a sonic boom for the same reason photons don’t make sonic booms. Also, veritasium did a video that breaks down *how* exactly electricity travels “down” a wire (it doesn’t – it’s complicated).
[Here’s the video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHIhgxav9LY)
Have you ever heard thunder in a storm? Or heard a zap when touching a doorknob?
Hummmmm … I may be wrong but it’s what a thunder does. Electricity moving in a wire are not displacing air hence no sound – electricity moving thru air will displace air thru heat and ionization… and BOOOM you got the thunder.
Veritasium did a phenomenal explanation of this! You’ll love it!
Don’t it? Lightning?
A sonic boom is when air is pushed out of the way of something moving faster than sound. If the electricity is not moving in air, no boom.
If the electricity is moving though the air it does make a boom. We call it *Thunder*. Technically, the electricity isn’t moving faster than sound there either, but this is ELI5
First lets aks what is electricity?
In schoole you learn it’s the movement if electrons. Thats kind of correct but as somebody else already said they are pretty slow.
But electricity is as fast as light?
Yes, the electro-magnetic waves are as fast as light. They do not need a medium to travel through space so they don’t interact with air. Hence no sonicboom.
Veritasium has a video explaining the Electro-Magnetic wave part a bit more.
Bit thunder exist?
Yes, and it’s a sonicboom. Lightning happens when the charge difference between the earth and the clouds (or other clouds) becomes so big that the molecules in the air become ionized (charged). Then electricity can flow which heats the air, which expands and creates a pressure area you here as thunder.
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