No you don't. After the sound is made, it has to travel
to your ears before you can hear it.
The speed of sound in air is about 340 meters per second.
That's about 760 miles per hour. That sounds awfully fast, but
it means that it takes sound almost 5 seconds to cover 1 mile.
Sometimes when you're outside, you might see a neighbor
down the street doing some carpentry outside his house, or
you may see some workers putting a new roof on a house nearby.
If you have this opportunity, watch their hammers carefully.
Light travels much much much much much faster than sound ...
about 874 thousand times as fast as sound. So you see things
just about as soon as they happen, but it takes the sound a while
to reach you. If the distance is about 34 meters (about 110 feet)
or more, then you can start to see the difference ... you'll see the
hammer hit, and then you'll hear it. The farther the distance is,
the longer the delay is.
The same thing happens at a baseball game when the batter
connects. First you see the ball hit the bat and fly away, and
then you hear the CRACK !
