Fact or fiction: if youre farther away from a radio station, you hear things later than someone closer to it.?

Question

i was wondering..

if youre in virginia, and youre listening to a radio station that is airing from rockville, maryland, wouldnt someone in rockville hear what theyre saying before the person in virginia.. cause the waves would reach them first because theyre closer, right?

Answer 1

Fact, as long as its terrestrial radio.  If the signal from Rockville MD goes exclusively up to a satellite and is bounced back to earth then the person in Virgina may actually hear the broadcast sooner if the distance from VA to the satellite is less than the distance from Rockville MD to the satellite.

Answer 2

Only true if they are the same distance from the radio speaker, and their ears work at the same speed.

Radio waves go at 186 miles in one millisecond.  Sound in the air goes at about 1 foot in one millisecond.  Sound signals go from your ear to your brain in about 3 milliseconds.

So if the guy in Rockville is 2 feet away from the speakers, and you are right next to the speakers, and you are 372 miles further away from the radio tower, then you both get the sound at the same time.  Basically, this will be about 2 milliseconds after the broadcast, plus another 3 milliseconds for the signal to get from ears to brain.

Answer 3

Yes but only slightly. Radio waves travel, more or less, at the speed of light (~186,000 miles/second). There's not going to be any noticeable difference really for radio stations particularly because their range is so limited that it prevents people from getting far enough way to tell a difference.

Answer 4

FICTION>>>>

radio waves fall under the electomagnetic wave spectrum where all waves travel at the speed of light.....so everyone hears it,"AT THE SAME TIME"

Answer 5

Yep.  That's right.

If you are in Richmond, you will hear the station 0.0006 seconds later than if you were in Rockville.