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Measuring the speed of sound and water ripples

Video coming soon

The key ideas and the summary sheet for this lesson are ready now.

Key ideas

  1. Speed of sound: measure a long distance, time the bang from seeing it to hearing it, then speed = distance ÷ time.

  2. A longer distance makes reaction time a smaller share of the measured time, so the result is more accurate.

  3. Ripples: count waves passing a point in a set time for frequency, measure across several waves for wavelength.

  4. Then use v = f λ to find the wave speed.