I was watching an XKCD “What-If” video recently and Randal off-handedly mentions the title fact as a given. Upon a further Google search I see explanations about why sound moves faster in liquids than gasses but nothing for my specific question. Is there an intuitive explanation for that fact or is it just one of those weird observable facts with no clear explanation
Ahhh not really? Energy can propagate within a medium faster than the speed of sound of said medium. Bullets are kinetic energy moving faster than the speed of sound in air.
Also how does defining the speed of sound in a medium (incorrectly) show that a fluid can’t flow faster than its internal speed of sound?
True. You can shoot lasers and such through a lot of things, but I am trying to describe a phenomenon in relatively simple language without getting too bogged down in the technical details. The question was about flowing liquids, so I assumed it was understood that that was what I was talking about.
All you did was define the speed of sound and then state:
“The speed of sound in a liquid medium is defined by the speed at which energy can propagate in that system, which includes motion”
Which is just a reiteration of what the speed of sound is and then an incorrect correlation to motion.
You didn’t describe what flow is, how it relates to the speed of sound, or and why flow stops at high flow rates. Your comment doesn’t answer the question and it’s worse than a nothing burger because it contains misinformation.