How do you measure the speed of sound?

Question

How do you measure the speed of sound?

Answer 1

In my class we use two microphones connected to an electronic timer.

The microphones are placed 1m apart and a loud sound is made near one microphone. When the sound reaches this first microphone it sends an electrical signal to the timer, which starts counting.

When the sound reaches the second microphone another electrical signal stops the timer.

The speed can then be calculated by using speed=distance ÷ time where distance is 1m and the time is recorded on the timer.

This should be repeated several times and a mean value can then be calculated.

Hope this helps :-)

Answer 2

Low budget method for speed of sound in air..Measure distance a large tall wall. Clap loudly..u get an echo. The time between clap and echo is time for sound 2 travel 2wce the distance. For 100m distance to wall the echo time would be about 2/3 sec..ur rxn time error would give a poor result. So..clap in time to the echos (if u got rhythm!) and time about twenty 'clap-echos' using ur stop-watch facility on ur digital watch/moby.

This will give u an ave time say 2/3 of a sec +/- rxn time/20=0.67+/-0.01sec. Then use v=d/t. Shud give speed of sound accura8 2 about +/- 5m/s.

Inside and for solids or liquids u wud need a couple of microphones metres apart wired to a computer interface which wud start/stop timers using computer software.

Answer 3

hmmm.. for example let's measure the sound of a large bomb.

the exploded from a point 2 another, and the distance = 100km

at first the speed of the sound = 1235 km/h

the distance = 100km

1235km × 100km = 123500 km/h

i hope that's what u wanted.

Answer 4

It varies with altitude.

I hope that this link is useful;

http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/atm...

Answer 5

The speed of sound varies greatly with density altitude.

usually an acoustic velometer is used to accuratly measure

sound speed.

in more general aplications, sound travels at approximatly 1100 ft/s

at sea level

Answer 6

the general speed of sound is 770 mph. or 344 meters per second. mythbusters used a microphone camera to take pictures of a shotgun firing. each camera placed further than the previous one. as the sound reached, the camera took a picture. there is probably a similar device to calculate the speed but if it is common enough for scientists to publish an actual speed of sound, i'd stick with that.

Answer 7

mmmm..a large bang and a stopwatch?

time an echo of a building at a pre determined distance...dont really know,im just guessing.

Answer 8

Most simple methods of measuring the speed of sound assume that light is instant. That means that if an explosion happens at a distance we can assume we see the flash at the exact time of the "bang". All you do then is count the seconds (or milliseconds) until you hear the noise. If you know the distance to the explosion you can now calculate the speed of the sound. Distance divided by time. During the next electric storm, when you see a lightening flash count the seconds till you hear the thunder. Roughly speaking for every second elapsed the storm is one mile away. Count on the second flash/bang and you can tell if the storm is approaching or getting further away by the time taken for the sound to reach you,(longer or shorter).