Do aerosol sprays emitted by coughing or sneezing travel at low, medium or even supersonic speeds?
Several studies have attempted to answer this question and the data on the subject are conflicting. Until a few years ago reference was made to a study of the middle of the last century, which set the " speed of sneezing " at 100 meters per second (360 km / h). A very high speed, deduced through some mathematical calculations.
In recent years, taking advantage of the advent of slow-motion shooting technologies, other scholars have measured the speed of sneezing. The Canadian virologist Julian tang, for example, measured the maximum speed of sneezes induced by the inhalation of pepper powder, resizing this value to 4.5 meters per second (16.2 km / h), for a maximum distance of 60 centimeters. Tang stated that these data (referring to a 2013 study) were detected by studying the sneezing of very thin Asian subjects and that most likely taller and sturdier individuals are able to produce sneezes of the highest speed.
During an episode of the Mythbusters transmission (Discovery Channel), using a camera capable of capturing images at high speed, the two conductors sneezed, emitting, respectively, aerosol jets at a speed of 35 and 39 m / s (equivalent to 126 and 140km / h).
