How does temperature affect speed of sound?

Question

How does temperature affect speed of sound?

Answer 1

I think it may travel faster on a cold day, becuase cold air is more dense than warm air.

Answer 2

The speed of sound equation is this:



C = SQRT ( gamma R T )



For air, Gamma is 1.4, and R is the gas constant for air at 287.09.

Take the temperature in Kelvin, and obtain the speed of sound.

Since Gamma and R are constant (at least for the temperature range that is pertinent), an increase of the temperature of 10% in absolute value (i.e. from 273.15 K or 32 F to 300.465 K or 81.167 F; or between a freezing night to a balmy day) would result in a 4.9% increase in the speed of sound (SQRT (1.1)).

Answer 3

sound travels better in cooler air, the cooler the molecules are in the air, the less they move, the easier it is for sound to travel uninterrupted in a cleaner wave.

Answer 4

The speed of sound is variable and depends mainly on the temperature and the properties of the substance through of which the wave is traveling. For example, in low molecular weight gases, such as helium, sound propagates faster compared to heavier gases, such as xenon. In a given ideal gas the sound speed depends only on its temperature. At a constant temperature, the ideal gas pressure has no effect on the speed of sound, because pressure and density (also proportional to pressure) have equal but opposite effects on the speed of sound, and the two contributions cancel out exactly. In non-ideal gases, such as a van der Waals gas, the proportionality is not exact, and there is a slight dependence on the gas pressure, even at a constant temperature. Humidity also has a small, but measurable effect on sound speed (increase of about 0.1%-0.6%), because some oxygen and nitrogen molecules of the air are replaced by the lighter molecules of water.

Answer 5

Higher temperature=reduced density



Lower temperature=increased density



When the air is hot, the molecules hit each other with more energy and spread out, and vice versa.



Higher density=speed of sound increases



Lower desnity=speed of sound decreases.



Remenber that sound travels faster in water, and faster still in solid objects. This is because they are more dense.

Answer 6

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first of all i would like to mention to the above two gentlemen that they misunderstood it, in the particular context in which you are asking this i will say no the temperature of water doesn affect it coz, this experiment depends upon the length of 'air' column, the water is there for just easy experimentation process, it is just used to increase or decrease the length of air column, but if you do the experiment properly you can get a little bit error coz, if the water is heated it will heat the air column above it too.. But theoretically ,no effect will be there. Transmission of sound in water is an altogether different case. :)

Answer 7

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RE:

How does temperature affect speed of sound?

Answer 8

The speed of sound is the distance travelled by a point on a sound wave per unit of time. The speed of sound is not a fixed constant but rather, its speed is a changing variable that can be influenced by different factors. The speed of sound changes together with the change in the medium through which it travels. The speed sound has an inverse relationship with the density of the medium. Density is defined as the mass of an object per unit volume. When an object has greater density, sound travels more slowly in comparison to its speed when travelling through an object with lesser density. Similarly, sound travels faster in oxygen than hydrogen because oxygen has a lesser density. The speed of sound has a direct relationship with temperature. As the temperature of an object goes up, the speed of sound increases, too. This change in speed occurs because a higher temperature reduces the density of material and as a result, the speed of sound increases. The speed of sound in a material, particularly in a gas or liquid, varies with temperature because a change in temperature affects the material's density.

This theory is proved in this project where the dry ice is used as a medium to control the temperature while the temperature will control the density of air in the styrofoam. As the temperature increase, it will reduce the density of air in the styrofoam and as a result the speed of sound travelling in the styrofoam increases. This is due to the fact that sound travels by vibrating molecules and passing the energy on to a nearby molecule. Sound travels faster through warm air than cold air because the molecules in the warm air are vibrating faster. Besides, with a higher temperature, more energy is in the air. With more energy, particles are able to vibrate faster, thus increasing the speed of sound. Then, this change in speed is brought about by the difference in spacing between molecules in different temperature. In higher temperature, the molecules are tightly packed due to higher energy in comparison to lower temperature, which has loosely packed molecules. Vibrations occur more easily when molecules are closer together; hence, the speed of sound becomes faster.

Answer 9

the hotter the air the more spaced out particles are so the faster they can flow...(i.e sound waves have a bigger gap to flow through) in colder air the particles are more closey packed to together (i.e sound waves have a smaller gap)

Answer 10

Sound waves are longitudinal waves, and are also mechanical waves.

Longitudinal waves travel faster in denser substances because the more tightly packed the object, the more easily the particles can hit each other.



By changing the temperature, this changes how fast the particles are moving. At higher temperature, the particles are more far apart (sound is slower). At lower temperature, the particles are more dense (sound is faster)

Answer 11

If it is colder, then the molecules in the air are more bunched up...making sound harder to get through them..so the speed is slower...



If it is hotter the molecules are much more spread out making the sound travel faster through them.

Answer 12

i dont know