The Speed of Sound: Changing with Medium

AI Thread Summary
The speed of sound varies with the medium due to factors like density, molar mass, temperature, and humidity. Denser materials can increase sound speed because closely packed particles facilitate vibrations, while higher molar mass typically slows it down due to increased inertia. Temperature increases the speed of sound as warmer particles move faster, although lower temperatures can complicate this relationship due to density changes. Humidity also affects sound speed, as increased moisture in the air leads to a higher speed due to the lighter water vapor replacing heavier nitrogen and oxygen molecules. Understanding these relationships is crucial for applications in acoustics and related fields.
albertrichardf
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Hi all.
How does the speed of sound change with the medium? That is, how does it change with density, molar mass, temperature and in air, humidity. It seems that denser materials would increase the speed of sound, since the particles are more closely packed and therefore ease vibrations. The speed would decrease if molar mass increased, because the mass of one molecule would be higher for a higher molar mass, and therefore would be harder to accelerate, slowing down propagation. The speed would increase with temperature, since particles would be mooing faster but I'm not sure if would increase as temperature decreased, as when temperature decreases the density increases. Finally, I would think the speed would increase with humidity, as there are more closely packed particles. Are my suppositions wrong? Thanks for any answers
 
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SteamKing said:
The speed of sound, and the factors which determine it, have been studied extensively:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_of_sound
Thanks, the information is useful
 

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