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What is the Speed of Sound? – Means, Medium, Spread, and More

speed of sound

Speed of Sound

The velocity of propagation of pressure waves in any medium. It adopts the name of the speed of sound, most easily perceptible phenomenon.

Because the propagation of a sound in a material is the most transparent, and of all the vibratory types.

The best-known value of the speed of sound is the one referred to the propagation of a wave in the air under standard conditions and corresponds to 342 m / s (about 1,230 km / h).

For propagation in other media there are highly variable values: 1,461 m / s (5,260 km / h) in water. 5,000 m / s (18,000 km / h) in steel and 30-70 m / s (100-150 km / h) on the rubber.

The velocity of propagation of pressure waves is of fundamental importance in the study of resonance phenomena in the collectors of reciprocating engines. It depends on the characteristics of the environment.

In the case of a gas, for example, the carbureted mixture. In the intake manifold or the gases burned in the exhaust manifold. Depends on their density and the pressure at which they are finding.

Means, medium

We can define a medium as a set of oscillators capable of vibrating by the action of a force:

Spread

FIGURE 01:

FIGURE 02:

Pressure Variations in the air (condensation and rarefaction) in the case of a simple harmonic motion.
The dots represent the air molecules:

As we said, in air, sound spreads spherically, that is, in all directions. We can imagine sound propagating as a sphere whose centre is the sound source and which is getting bigger and bigger:

Or, what is the same, that its radius is increasing every time?

The speed of sound

Standing waves

So far we have talked about waves propagating in a medium, that is, travelling waves:

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