what does the speed of sound measure?
440638
341m/s but it changes according to the weather conditions in humid climate it is faster as compared to dry.and yeah sound does not travel through vacuum\nspeed of sound in solids > liquids > gases
697266
In a vacuum, the speed of light is 299,792,458meters per second and sound is 344meters per second at sea level and 70deg Fahrenheit.\n\nHowever, these speeds are dependent on various outside factors--namely the material they are passing through.
409027
Speed of sound is dependent on temperature. Speed of sound is directly proportional to the square root of pressure and inversely proportional to the square root of the density of the medium.\nv is proportional to P(pressure) and inversely proportional to D(density)\nP/D=RT/M    where R is the gas constant, T is the absolute temperature and M is the molecular mass.\n\nTherefore, Pressure is directly proportional to the absolute temperature of the gas.\nHence,\nv is directly proportional to the temperature.
594641
since the humidity is low, It is reasonable to neglect the humidity factor since the T is same the speed of sound can also taken as constant.\nspeed = distance by time\ntherefore time = 400 / 343 s.\n               = 1.16610875801749 s.
117131
1,000000,0000000 that is how fast sound really is.\n\nbut to answer you question just listen and watch a jet after the jet passes then it takes 15 seconds before you here the sound because the jet has broken through the sound barrier.
289044
The frequency range is generally accepted to be 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz. With the speed of sound = 334 m/s, 20 Hz has a wavelength of 16.7 m, 20,000 Hz a wavelength of 16.7 mm. (Ubergeek, the answerer in your link slipped a decimal place.)
1013560
The answer depends upon what sort of wave you are talking about and the medium it is travelling. Say for example if it is a light wave through vacuum, then \n\nWavelength = (2.99875 X 10^8) / Frequency.\n\nIf the same is sound through air at 60% humidity and at sea level, then\n\nWavelength = (340) / Frequency.\n\nIf it is a sound wave through water (4 degrees celsius), then\n\nWavelength = (1440) / Frequency.\n\nThe value inside the bracket is the speed of the wave in the respective medium under respective conditions.
810751
The speed of sound in water (including seawater) depends on several factors, but most important is the the temperature of the water.  By measuring the time it takes for an acoustic signal to travel from a source to a receiver, one can determine the average temperature along the path followed by that sound signal. (Other factors that include sound velocity or travel time include salinity, pressure (i.e. pressure-induced changes in density), and ocean currents.)  By measuring the average temperature along many different paths, one can reconstruct a 3-dimensional "map" of the temperature distribution in the oceans.  \n\nBy following the changes in temperature over time, one can detect long-term changes in the temperature distribution and hence average temperatures of the oceans.
850732
If you can measure the *frequency*, you know the wavelength.\n(As the wavelength is just the frequency divided by the speed of sound.)  I found a calculator that does this for you:\nhttp://www.sengpielaudio.com/calculator-wavelength.htm\n\nIdeally you would get an oscilloscope to measure the frequency.\n\nIf you don't have access to one, if you have a guitar tuner, you could measure the frequency (the tuner will tell you the pitch, say A#, and you can look up the frequency of that pitch in a music book).\n\nOr if you have a bunch of tuning forks or a pitch pipe, you could get an approximation.\n\nIf you have an ocilloscope, don't forget to get the precise speed of sound at your elevation (sound travels a bit faster at sea level, than if you live in, say, Denver).  (Note that the calculator link above gives you a place to enter the speed of sound where you live.)  If you're using a guitar tuner or tuning forks, they are only approximations anyway, so the exact speed of sound for your elevation won't make a difference.  \n\nP.S.  I found a reference to a sound analyzer you can get for your computer!  The software is free, but it needs a soundcard in your computer (which you probably have).  It uses the information from a microphone in your computer to give you the frequency and wavelength of the musical note.  It's kinda cheating if this is for a science-fair project ... but maybe this is what you want.\nhttp://www.relisoft.com/Freeware/freq.html
48877
The speed of propagation of sound in dry air at a temperature of 0° C (32° F) is 331.6 m/sec (1,088 ft/sec). If the temperature is increased, the speed of sound increases; thus, at 20° C (68° F), the velocity of sound is 344 m/sec (1,129 ft/sec). Changes in pressure at constant density have virtually no effect on the speed of sound. The velocity of sound in many other gases depends only on their density. If the molecules are heavy, they move less readily, and sound progresses through such a medium more slowly. Thus, sound travels slightly faster in moist air than in dry air, because moist air contains a greater number of lighter molecules. The velocity of sound in most gases depends also on one other factor, the specific heat, which affects the propagation of sound waves\nThe speed of sound in water, for example, is slightly less than 1,525 m/sec (5,000 ft/sec) at ordinary temperatures but increases greatly with an increase in temperature. The speed of sound in copper is about 3,353 m/sec (11,000 ft/sec) at ordinary temperatures and decreases as the temperature is increased (owing to decreasing elasticity); in steel, which is more elastic, sound moves at a speed of about 4,877 m/sec (about 16,000 ft/sec). Sound is propagated very efficiently in steel.
741475
Good question.\nNo. If you are travelling faster than the speed of sound (faster than Mach 1), you can not hear an echo of the sounds that you make.\n\nIn order to hear an echo, the sound must travel from your location, bounce off something, and return to you. \n\nIf you are travelling faster than Mach 1, all of the sound that you make is behind you. Whether it bounces or not, it can not come back to you, because once it's behind you it can't catch up with you.\n\nHere's an interesting thought: \nIf you subsequently slow down to less than Mach 1, then the sounds that you made while travelling faster than Mach 1 will start catching up with you. When you hear those sounds, they will not be echos in the sense of "sound that BOUNCED back to you." But you would experience the same effect as an echo (a sound that emanated from you, and later reached your ears).
84323
You tell me, you the one doing the lab probably.\n\nOne of several possible objects could be to identify the speed of sound.  You might also be studying the nature of waves (wavelength, frequency, ...).
311698
I'm not sure if this is what you are looking for, but rapidity, in special relativity, is defined as \n\ntanh(rapidity) = v/c,\n\nwhere v is the speed of the particle, and c is speed of light.  For v << c, rapidity ~= v/c; for high v, it may be a more intuitive measure of speed beacuse it ranges from 0..infinity (as opposed to v/c, which is always < 1)
1062427
The frequency of sound is the number of waves emitted by the source of sound.\n\nBut we judge the frequency of sound by the number waves falling in our ear drum.\n\nIf we were standing still, we will judge the actual frequency of the sound emitted by the speaker.\n\nIf we move toward the speaker, the number of waves that are falling in our ear drum is increased; the number is increased by a factor c+v/ c where c is the speed of sound and v is the speed of us toward the speaker.\n\nThe same thing happens if we are at rest and the speaker moves toward us. \n\nSuppose we move away from the speaker with the speed of sound, then we cannot hear the sound at all. If we move with a speed less than that of sound, it implies the speed of sound is more and as we are also moving we will hear only less number of waves. Thus the frequency is decreased.  This time the factor is c-v/v. \n\nThe same thing happens if we are at rest and the speaker moves away from us.\n\nThis effect is called Doppler effect.
736786
because LIGHT travels faster than SOUND!!!\n\nSpeed of light:  186,282.397 miles per second\n\nSpeed of sound:  1238 km/h or 770 mph
663538
The speed of light and other EM waves (in a vacuum) is:\n299,792,458 meters per second\n\nThe speed of sound (at sea level) is:\n340.29 meters per second\n\nThe ratio is 880,991 times faster.\nThe difference is 299,792,118 m/s faster.\n\nOr the simple answer is about a million times faster.\nThe even simpler answer is *lots* faster!\n\nThis also explains why you see far away lightning long before you hear the thunder clap (except in the movies).
960213
Sound is a type of longitudinal, mechanical wave. They need a medium to propagate and will not travel through a vacuum. Sound travels at different speed in different media. The speed of sound is determined by the density (ρ) and compressibility (β) of the medium. Density is the amount of material in a given volume, and compressibility is a meaasure of how much a substance could be compacted for a given pressure. The denser and the more compressible, the faster the sound waves would travel. Therefore, the speed of sound is about four times faster in water than in air. The speed of sound in a medium can be determined by the equation  …\n\nv = (βρ)-1/2\n\nWhere …\n\nv is the speed of sound,\nβ is the bulk modulus of elasticity, and\nρ (rho) is the density.\n\nThe speed of sound can also be affected by temperature. Sound waves tend to travel faster at higher temperatures. I have found different values for the speed of sound in water in different sources. They range from 1450 to 1498 meters per second in distilled water and 1531 m/s in sea water at room temperatures (20 to 25 °C).