[alexbock]

The speed of sound is probably more in the latter category as it is dependent on altitude and temperature, and even then only after assuming that someone really meant the speed of sound in air. If I search for "speed of sound" Google's info box will give me an answer labeled as "speed of sound at sea level" which should probably instead say "speed of sound in the atmosphere at sea level at 20 degrees celsius". It's an ill-defined question when asked so vaguely, and if you're going to pretend to give a definite answer by making a bunch of assumptions, they should be clearly presented.

[dkrich]

I disagree. While there are some searchers who are curious about the subtleties of the differences between the speed of sound through various mediums and at different altitude levels, most people searching for that basic question are satisfied to know that the speed of sound through air is about 750mph, which is why I said that it would satisfy about 99% of searchers. People who are interested in digging in further can comb through the rest of the results, or further specify that they want to know the speed of sound through water or at 35,000 feet above sea level. Just as some people who search for "What is the height of the Empire State Building?" may want to know what is the height of the highest occupied floor, or just the structure without the mast, most want to know how many feet is the distance from the base to the top?

By trying to satisfy every searcher for these types of queries, you will be making searching more cumbersome for the vast majority of people, which is why I think that providing a single, easy to view answer that is likely to satisfy the person who entered the search a calculated risk that's worth taking.

It's for the answers that wouldn't satisfy most searchers that I don't think a definitive answer should be provided, as it is likely to be either wrong, or just one of many possible answers that the searcher is looking for.

It reminds me of a picture I once saw of MS Word when every single banner is enabled. The menus occupy half the screen. Even though there is some power user somewhere who really needs that menu option, the reality is that virtually nobody else does. So while that user has to go through the pain to figure out how to enable that banner, his pain makes the product easier to use for 99.99999% of users.

[pesfandiar]

If the difference in the speed of sound because of altitude and temperature makes a difference for you, you should probably research a bit farther than the Google's info box. I just see that as useful as answering trivia quiz questions.

[luck_fenovo]

I sort of agree. On the one hand, an approximate answer is fine for this use-case (especially when you can look down 2 inches and see the full context in the Wikipedia result without looking through) but perhaps it would be worthwhile on answers like that to say "Approximately" at the front just to be clear.

[nkrisc]

It's even worse because the type of person who is Googling "What's the speed of sound" very likely doesn't understand that there are all these variables that affect it in the first place.