Speed of sound is the greatest in :
(1) Water
(2) Air
(3) Glass
(4) Glycerine
Answer: (3) Sound travels faster in liquids and non-porous solids than it does in air. It travels about 4.3 times as fast in water (1,484 m/s), and nearly 15 times as fast in iron (5,120 m/s), than in air at 20 degrees Celsius. Sound waves in solids are composed of compression waves (just as in gases and liquids), but also exhibit a different type of sound wave called a shear wave, which occurs only in solids. The speed of sound is the distance travelled during a unit of time by a sound wave propagating through an elastic medium. In dry air at 20 °C (68 °F), the speed of sound is 343.2 metres per second (1,126 ft/s). This is 1,236 kilometres per hour (768 mph), or about one kilometre in three seconds or approximately one mile in five seconds.
