Help with mathematical formula (for a science class)?

Question

I'm doing a lab assignment for my Oceanography class, but I'm horrible at math, so I want to put this out there to see if someone can tell me if I'm going at this the right way (or not).

Here's the problem:

At a sound velocity of 1450 meters/second (800 fathoms/second), how long would it take a sound pulse from a ship directly over a canyon 3000 meters deep to go from the ship to the bottom and return?

Answer in seconds.

Okay - so the formula is D = V x T

I have V = 1450, D = 3000, right?

Since the sound pulse has to go down 3000 feet and back up, then that would be 6000 feet wouldn't it?

So since I am searching for T, wouldn't I divide 6000 by 1450?

I get a decimal - I would think I'd come out with an even number.

I'm hopeless, I'm afraid. Please be nice to me. I'm an Arts major and have never been good with science or math.

Thank you so much for any help you can give me.

Answer 1

You are right on.

Answer 2

your method is right. you get 4.14 seconds. assuming that the distance is in meters (you say the depth is 3000m and you later talk about 2*3000 feet so i am not sure which one is right).

Answer 3

You did well- that's the right way to answer this question.

Physics doesn't like integers as much as math- you shouldn't expect to get nice and neat answers.  Round off to two digits after the decimal, or however required by your instructor.

Answer 4

lol....you're funny...in a nice way.

Yeah, looks like you're doing it right. The round trip is twice the distance.

You end up with a time of about 4.14 seconds.

Good luck....sounds like fun.

Answer 5

you are right.  the number should be with decimal.  it would not be an even number. It would be somewhere around 4.14 seconds