How fast does sound travel through the air? You can measure it the same way you time a runner on a track. All you need is a stopwatch and a wall that produces a good echo. You stand a known distance from a large flat surface. Fire a starter's pistol and start the stopwatch at the same moment. Stop the watch when you hear the echo. Divide twice the distance by the time to get the speed. At room temperature you should get about 344 meters per second. At freezing the speed drops to about 331 meters per second. Sound also travels much faster through water at roughly 1480 meters per second.