Speed+of+Sound

The speed of sound describes how far a sound wave travels in certain amount of time. The speed of sound is dependent on the temperature of the air, and it travels around 343 m/s in air at the temperature of 20 degrees celcius or around 68 degrees Fahrenheit. The equation for the speed of sound is as shown: v = 331m/s + (.6 m/s **/ °**C)T- where T is the temperature of the air
 * SPEED OF SOUND**

The speed of sound travels differently in other mediums such as water, solid objects and air. (each equation is shown below) SPEED OF SOUND IN: WATER: v = square root (B **/** p) SOLID ROD: v = Square root (Y / p) AIR: v = ( 331 m/s)Squae root ( T / 273K)

The speed of sound in water is around 1497 m/s when the water is around 25° C. Sound is even faster in saltwater in which it travels around 1500 m/s. In addition sound travels through many other materials such as steel. In steel sound travels at the speed of 4512 m/s. Now you might ask why does it matter how fast sound goes through different objects but this principle has many practical applications in life. For example if you know the speed of sound in air is around 343 m/s and the sound travels through steel at a much faster speed of 4512 m/s. Knowing this, one could place one ear on a steal track of a train and hear the train from a farther distance than just standing and waiting for the sound to travel through air. ( Caution: make sure the train is at a safe distance away before placing any body parts on the train tracks). Another example how the speed of sound can be used in real life examples would be with lighting and thunder. Knowing the speed of light is much faster than the speed of sound how could you find how far away you are from that bolt of lighting. Here is a sample problem showing how this would be done.

To begin with this problem you need to now that D=r x t Then the next step would be D= 343 ( speed of sound in air) x 16.4 s So the answer to the problem would be: **5625.2 m**
 * Suppose that you hear a clap of thunder 16.4s after seeing the associated lightning stroke. The speed of sound waves in air is 343 m/s and the speed of light in air is 3.00 X 10^8 m/s. How far are you from the lightning stroke?**

Some other applications for the speed of sound in the world would be echo's and sonar. An echo is the reflection of sound from a surrounding object. This type of problem is basically the same as the above problem but at the end you need to divide that distance by two because the sound travels form you to the wall and then back to you, so to find the distance from you to the wall you need to half of the found distance.

Here is a [|link] to a completed lab that might help with the concept of the speed of sound and how it is calculated.