An echo bounces from a building exactly 1.00s after you honk your horn.?

Question

How many feet away is the building if the air temperature is 20.0°C?

Answer 1

velocity= distance / time (in seconds)

velocity would be 2.99x10^8 because the temperature is room temperature.

so the equation would be:

2.99x10^8 = d/1.00

soooo

IF the echo is heard after the wave comes back and hits your ears, you have to divide the time by two

so it would be

2.99x10^8 = d/0.5

so just mulitply 2.99x10^8 by 0.5 and there's your answer! :]

this is a fairly simple question.

Answer 2

Speed of sound in air is a little over 1100 ft/sec (346m/s). Thus, distance is about 550 ft. (173m).

Since they spec the air temp, they likely want a more accurate answer. So, find a better number for the speed of sound. They probably have a preferred formula in your book or handouts.  You can also Google it to find sources, one is listed below. However, this may not give quite the same answer as the method in your text.

BTW, the 2.9979 x 10^8 m/s mentioned by summer school physics boy is an incorrectly rounded value for light in a vacuum, not sound in air at sea level.

Answer 3

16.3 ft.

Answer 4

i think the velocity of the wind in the surrounding would also affect the results. also the density of the building structure...