Name: Study of Infrasound and Ultrasound in Waves
Uploaded: 2019-07-19
Duration: 5 min 55 s
Description: If you pay attention, you will be able to hear so many different sounds in your daily life. What about the sounds that the human ear is not capable of detect...

Question

Describe a simple experiment to determine the speed of sound in air. What approximation is made in the method described by you?

Accepted Answer

A simple experiment that a person can do to calculate the speed of sound in air: Let two persons stand at a known distance from each other in wide open ground, one with a stopwatch and the other with a cracker or a pistol.

Steps :

(1) Signal your friend to burn the cracker or fire the pistol.

(2) Once you see the flash of the explosion of cracker or the flash of the pistol, start the stopwatch.

(3) Once you hear the sound of explosion of cracker or the pistol, stop the stopwatch.

(4) Record the time and measure the distance between the persons using a tape.

(5) Calculate the speed of sound by dividing the time taken by the sound to cover the distance measured.

Approximations in the experiment:

(1) As the speed of light is very much greater than the speed of sound so, it is approximated that the light instantly reaches to the first person when the cracker explodes.

(2) The wind affects the speed of sound but here the speed of wind is neglected.

(3) As the temperature also, affects the speed of sound but here it has not been considered.

Describe a simple experiment to determine the speed of sound in air. What approximation is made in the method described by you?

Important Questions on Propagation of Sound Waves

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