Light is significantly faster than sound. The speed of light in a vacuum is approximately 299,792,458 meters per second (about 186,282 miles per second). This is the fastest speed at which any information or energy can travel through the universe.

In contrast, as mentioned earlier, the speed of sound in air at room temperature is approximately 343 meters per second (about 1,125 feet per second). Therefore, light is about 880,991 times faster than sound in typical conditions. This difference in speed is why we see lightning before we hear the associated thunder during a thunderstorm. The light from the lightning reaches us almost instantaneously, while the sound of thunder takes some time to travel through the air to our ears.