Speed Of Sound Essay

The Speed of "Sound": is actually the speed of transmission of a small disturbance through a medium. The speed of sound (a) is equal to the square root of the ratio of specific heats (g) times the gas constant (R) times the absolute temperature (T).

a = sqrt [g * R * T]

Sonic Boom

Sound generated by airflow has been around and reasearched for a long time. The increased use of fluid machines and engines has led to an increasing level of noise generation, and hence to an increasing interest in this area of research.

A sonic boom is a loud noise caused by an aircraft travelling faster than the speed of sound which is mach one.. The sound propagates along the figure which is called

a = sqrt [g * R * T]

Since the speed of a wave is defined as the distance which a point on a wave travels per unit of time, it is often expressed in units of meters/second. In equation form, this is speed(s)=distance(d)/time(t). Distance is usually measured in Meters, and time is measured in seconds, thus giveing us the equation Speed=(meters)/(seconds)

The Doppler effect is a phenomenon observed whenever the source of waves is moving with respect to an observer such as a car passing by a person of a plane flying overhead. The Doppler effect can be described as the effect produced by a moving source of waves where there is an apparent upward shift in the frequency or ammount of waves, for the observer and the source are approaching and an apparent downward shift in frequency when the observer and the source is receding.

The Doppler effect can be observed to occur with all types of waves. We are most familiar with the Doppler effect because of our experiences with sound waves. Such experiences may have been as you stand on the side of the highway and a police car with it's sirens blazing passes by and listening to the siren as it approaches and as it passes and travels