Question

1 (a) Two students are measuring the speed of sound.
The students are provided with a starting pistol, a stopwatch and a long measuring tape. The
starting pistol, when fired, produces a loud sound and a puff of smoke at the same instant.
Describe how the students use the apparatus and how they calculate the speed. You may
draw a diagram.

Answer 1

The students can find the speed by the following method :

• At the start of the experiment  the students should stand at distance of 250m between each other

• As soon as student 1 fires the pistol and smoke arises student 2 should start the stopwatch

• The  stopwatch should be stopped by student 2 when he listens the sound from the pistol

• The speed of the sound can be calucated by the Relation

                                 $Speed = \frac{Distance}{Time}$

• By the following method the speed of the sound can be calculated