How Do You Calculate the Distance of Sound Traveling Through Different Mediums?

AI Thread Summary
To calculate the distance of sound traveling through different mediums, the velocities of sound in air (343 m/s) and concrete (2949 m/s) are essential. The problem involves two sounds heard 1.4 seconds apart, with the setup using time differences to establish equations. The proposed equation, V(in air)T(in air) = V(in concrete)[T(in air) - 1.4], is a valid approach to relate the distances and times. The user realized a mistake in their calculations after initial confusion. Correctly applying the setup will yield the distance of the impact.
Boulderbison19
Messages
7
Reaction score
0
so i have some questions on how to set up this one problem on my homework.

Here is the problem:

A person sees a heavy stone strike the concrete pavement. A moment later, two wounds are heard from the impace: one travels through the concrete and the other through air, and the sounds are heard 1.4 seconds apart. how far away did the impact occur?

i got the velocity in air to be 343 m/s and the velocity through concrete to be 2949 m/s by the elastic modulus equation. how would i go setting up equations for this problem? i tried T(in concrete)=T(in air)-1.4 and used D=D to set up

V(in air)T(in air)=V(in concrete)[T(in air)-1.4]

would this setup work, or would another set up work any better?

thanks
 
Physics news on Phys.org
that's what I would do.
 
ok i got it. i just made a stupid mistake in solving the problem. thanks
 
I multiplied the values first without the error limit. Got 19.38. rounded it off to 2 significant figures since the given data has 2 significant figures. So = 19. For error I used the above formula. It comes out about 1.48. Now my question is. Should I write the answer as 19±1.5 (rounding 1.48 to 2 significant figures) OR should I write it as 19±1. So in short, should the error have same number of significant figures as the mean value or should it have the same number of decimal places as...
Thread 'A cylinder connected to a hanging mass'
Let's declare that for the cylinder, mass = M = 10 kg Radius = R = 4 m For the wall and the floor, Friction coeff = ##\mu## = 0.5 For the hanging mass, mass = m = 11 kg First, we divide the force according to their respective plane (x and y thing, correct me if I'm wrong) and according to which, cylinder or the hanging mass, they're working on. Force on the hanging mass $$mg - T = ma$$ Force(Cylinder) on y $$N_f + f_w - Mg = 0$$ Force(Cylinder) on x $$T + f_f - N_w = Ma$$ There's also...
Back
Top