6.3.2

Sound Waves 2

Test yourself

Speed of Sound

Sound needs to travel through a medium. The more rigid the medium is, the higher the speed of the sound wave through the medium. The more compressible the medium is, the slower the speed of the sound wave through the medium.

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Gases

  • Gases are readily compressible (easy to squash), so the speed of sound in a gas is very slow.
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Liquids

  • Liquids are more rigid and less compressible than gases, so the speed of sound in liquids is much higher than in gases.
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Solids

  • Solids are significantly more rigid than liquids and gases and are very hard to compress.
  • Therefore, the speed of sound in solids is much higher than in liquids or gases.

Measuring the Speed of Sound - Experiment

Echoes can be used to measure the speed of sound.

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Speed of sound - echo

  • Two people stand a measured distance from a tall vertical wall. This distance should ideally be about 100m.
  • The first person bangs two wooden blocks together to make a sharp sound and repeats this every time the echo is heard.
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Speed of sound - echo

  • Starting counting from zero, the second person uses a stopwatch (timer) to measure the time taken for a number of claps – 50 or 100.
  • In the time between two successive claps, the sound travels to the wall and back.
  • The speed of sound can be calculated from the following relationship:
    • speed of sound = distance to wall × 2 × number of claps (N) ÷ time taken for N claps.

Jump to other topics

1Energy

2Electricity

3Particle Model of Matter

4Atoms & Radiation

5Forces

6Waves

7Magnetism

8Astrophysics

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