Sound takes time to travel from point a to b.
Say you are standing in the endzone of a football field (100 yards) with perfect acoustics and a sound reflector in the other end zone.
You clap your hands. ~0.267 second later the sound of the clap reaches the reflector. ~0.267 seconds after that (or about 0.533 seconds total) you hear the echo of your clap.
No imaging there is a person standing every 10 yards. The guy 10 yard from you hears your clap ~0.027 seconds after your clap. 20 yards equal ~0.53. 30 = ~0.080.
So each person tries to match your claps based on when they hear it, but they do not hear it all at the same time.
The result from your standpoint is a cascade of claps, each a little later than the other.
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