Question

Speed of supersonic aircraft is:
A. Below speed of sound
B. Equal to speed of sound
C. More than speed of sound
D. Equal to speed of light

Answer 1

Hint: In this question, first we will understand what is supersonic speed and speed and then further this information will give us relation between the supersonic speed and speed of sound, which will help us to find the answer to the above question.

Complete step by step answer:
Here, we know that the supersonic speed is the speed of an object that exceeds the speed of sound. In an object which is traveling in dry air at a temperature of 20 °C or 68 °F at sea level, this speed is approximately 343.2 m/s. Further, speed that is greater than five times the speed of sound is referred to as hypersonic.
Further we can also understand this concept by observing the vehicles that are flying at supersonic speeds are flying faster than the speed of sound. The speed of sound is about 768 miles per hour or 1236 kilometers per hour, at sea level. These speeds are called the Mach numbers. The Mach number is defined as the ratio of the speed of the aircraft to the speed of the sound.
Flight that is faster than Mach 1 is termed as supersonic. Supersonic includes speeds up to five times faster than the speed of the sound, or Mach 5.

So, the correct answer is “Option C”.

Additional Information: We already know the basic difference of speed and velocity i.e., speed is the measure of how fast an object can travel, whereas velocity tells us the direction of this speed. Speed is a scalar quantity that means it has only magnitude, whereas velocity is a vector quantity that means it has both magnitude and direction. The S.I unit of velocity is meter per second (m/sec).

Note: Here we should notice that the speed of sound is different in different mediums. Further, the speed that is more than the speed of sound is termed differently like- supersonic, hypersonic etc. we should also remember that the speed of light cannot be achieved by any other transport or object.