Sound travels faster through solids than it does through either liquids or gases a student could verify this statement by

Put a watch on table and hear it ticking, it will be faint. Next keep your ears on the table, you can hear more clear ticking. If you put a watch in water then you wont be able to hear it as well even if you put your ear on the glass.

Explanation:

the old alchemists made significant contributions to science even though there starting premises were off a bit. their conclusions after failure would steer them into better directions for investigation. science is no more than close observation and the initial mistakes result in rethinking and retrying experiments.