A railway engine is away from a boy

PHYSICS · Multi-part · A Level · Physics · Waves · Waves

Problem

A railway engine is 3300 m3300\,\text{m} away from a boy. The boy places one ear on the steel rail and also listens through the air. He hears the whistle through the rail 8 s8\,\text{s} before he hears it through the air (speed of sound in air =330 m/s=330\,\text{m/s}). (i) Calculate the speed of sound in the steel rail. (ii) Find the ratio of the speed of sound in steel to that in air.

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