Describe a simple experiment to determine the speed of sound in air.

One method to measure the speed of sound would require two people, a large open space, a starting pistol that produces smoke instantaneously when fired, a stopwatch and a tool to measure long distances (e.g. a trundle wheel).
The two students would stand a large distance away from each other (greater than 100m), that can be measured using the trundle wheel. One student would fire the gun. The other student would start the stopwatch when they initially saw the gun fire and the smoke appear. We are making the assumption that the speed of light is instantaneous in this example. The student would stop the stopwatch when they heard the gunshot, giving them a reading for time.
As speed= distance/time, the speed of sound could be calculated using the distance between the two students. The reading on the stopwatch would be the time. Dividing the distance between the students by the time we would get an accurate estimate of the speed of sound in air. To improve the accuracy, repeat the experiment or conduct the experiment over a greater distance.

AE

Related Physics GCSE answers

All answers ▸

A coal fire is burning in the bottom of a furnace, with a chimney above it. Air moves into the furnace from an opening at the bottom and up the chimney. Describe how the process of convection causes this air movement.


A hair dryer uses 2000J in 5 seconds when on full power. The power used is?


Astronauts on the ISS orbit Earth 16 times a day at a height of 400km above the surface. Given that the radius of Earth is approximately 6400km, how fast are the astronauts travelling?


In the early 20th Century the plum pudding model of the atom was replaced by the nuclear model of the atom, explain why this happened.