A railway worker places his ear on a steel rail to detect the arrival of an approaching train whose whistle is sounded 2.0km away along the same track. At the same moment, another worker standing beside him listens through air.
Take: speed of sound in steel rail =5950m/s; speed of sound in air =340m/s.
(i) Calculate the time interval after which each worker hears the whistle.
(ii) How much earlier does the worker using the rail hear the sound than the worker listening through air?
(iii) The human ear cannot distinguish two sounds that arrive within 0.05s of each other. Will the two workers hear the sounds as separate events or as one? Justify your answer with calculation.
(iv) List the three media involved (rail, water vapour in air, ordinary air) in decreasing order of speed of sound, explaining the reason for this order.