A student stands at a known distance from a tall cliff and strikes a tuning fork
PHYSICS · Multi-part · A Level · Physics · Further mechanics and thermal physics · Further mechanics and thermal physics
Problem
A student stands at a known distance from a tall cliff and strikes a tuning fork. The student is exactly 330m away from the cliff face and hears the echo of the note after 1.90s. The air may be treated as an ideal diatomic gas with γ=1.4 and molar mass M=29g mol−1.
(i) Show that the absolute temperature T of the air can be written in the form T=γRM(t2d)2, where d is the distance from the student to the cliff and t is the measured echo time.
(ii) Using the given data, calculate the ambient temperature of the air in degree Celsius.
(iii) State whether the calculated value is consistent with ordinary room conditions and justify your answer briefly.