What effect the speed of sound?

[n3w ton]

I know that temperature effects the speed of sound.

Can this also effect the speed of sound?
-Frequency : high or low?
-Gas type : if its traveling through oxygen or helium ? How would they compare? Does their mass play a part and heat capacity?

My attempt: I think the gas type will make a difference in the speed of sound because different gases will have different heat capacity's. If a atom can hold more 'heat' than the sound can travel through it faster. Though I am not sure how its atomic mass would contribute to the speed of sound...

Also I read that freqency does not play a role in the speed of sound becaue v=f*wavelength, since v is a constant and F is an inverse of wavelength.

Please reply thanks! (im in grade 11)

 

[piyushkumar]

speed of sound in a gaseous medium = sqrt(gamma*R*T/M), where gamma is ratio of Cp to Cv of the gas ( refer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_of_sound#Speed_in_ideal_gases_and_in_air for more details)
gamma, R and M are all properties of medium, so speed of sound cannot depend on freq, but depends on medium

 

[nasu]

The speed of sound depends on the medium. So definitely will be different in different gases.
In it also depends on polarization of the wave (for solid media).
The speed may also depend on frequency. It depends on the medium, again. And also on frequency range.

If this happens we have what is called a dispersive medium.
For most usual cases the media (gas, liquid, solid) are only weakly dispersive (or not at all) and you can assume that the speed of audible sound waves is independent on frequency.
On the other side some sound waves in thin plates are strongly dispersive even at relatively low frequency.