Just like if your standing down wind of a conversation you can hear it from a much longer distance then if your on the up wind side.Originally Posted by alienator .
Wind "pushing the sound" away from you? Oh please, regale us with how that works, Mr. Physics.
I actually recall reading written comments made by people who lived around the area in which the battle of Gettysburg took place in July of 1863 while I was in college. On July 3rd the day of Picketts charge which had one of the largest cannon battles of the war many people who lived downwind as far away as 100 miles away claimed to hear the sound of the cannons. There was even a news paper acrticle published on July 4th which stated that some of the local residents had fled the area fearing that the war was about to roll into their town. The article apperaed in a paper that was published in a town that was 75 miles downwind of Gettysburg. They heard the cannon so loud that they thought they where beign fired just a mile away or so! But in other written accounts subjects only a few miles upwind of the town of Gettysburg stated they heard no cannon fire at all.
Why do you think hunters and trackers try their best to stay downwind of their pray. Why do they do this? So the pray can not smell or hear them. Im no physics teacher but i know that wind does push sound waves around. There is also a study out there that I read while in the police acadmey that stated your patrol car siren can not be heard by vehicles that are as little as 60 feet in front of you once you hit 75 mph. And by the way drivers reeact when Im running lights and siren some where I belive it. Most of the time they dont know Im back there until I am right on there rear bumper, you know why that is? huh? becaues all my siren noise is beign pushed behind my car by the wind my patrol car is making. Once I slow down to their speed the wind dies down and the sound can again push foward so they can hear it and pull over.