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Sound · question bank

Sound: question bank

Seventy-two questions across nine sections, from the basics of vibration to Doppler shifts and earthquake waves. Every numeric answer was computed in Python and checked before being written here. Work through a section at a time, use the hints if you are stuck, and read the worked solution even when you get a question right.

Foundation 16Core 33Stretch 18Challenge 9

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All 76 questions

Showing 15 of 76 matching questions.

Q1

FoundationVibration and medium

What does every sound in the world begin with?

Q2

FoundationVibration and medium

In a sitar, what part is actually vibrating to make the main sound?

Q3

CoreVibration and medium

A bansuri makes its sound mainly because of the vibration of

Q4

CoreVibration and medium

An electric bell rings inside a sealed glass jar. As air is pumped out, the sound

Q5

CoreVibration and medium

Fill in the blank: a ______ is the material that a sound wave travels through, such as air, water or steel.

Q6

StretchVibration and medium

Astronauts on a spacewalk cannot talk directly through the vacuum of space, but they can hear each other by touching helmets together. This shows that

Q7

StretchVibration and medium

A sound wave in air is described as longitudinal. This means the air particles

Q8

ChallengeVibration and medium

A compression in a sound wave is a region where the air particles are

Q9

FoundationSpeed of sound

Put these in order from slowest to fastest for sound: air, steel, water.

Q10

FoundationSpeed of sound

Sound travels at 343 m/s in air. How far, in metres, does it travel in exactly 1 second?

Q11

CoreSpeed of sound

Using v = 331.3 + 0.606 × T, what is the speed of sound in air, in m/s, at 25 degrees Celsius? Give your answer to one decimal place.

Q12

CoreSpeed of sound

Using v = 331.3 + 0.606 × T, what is the speed of sound in air, in m/s, at 35 degrees Celsius? Give your answer to one decimal place.

Q13

CoreSpeed of sound

You count 9 seconds between a lightning flash and its thunder. Roughly how many kilometres away did the lightning strike? (Use 3 seconds per kilometre.)

Q14

CoreSpeed of sound

You count 18 seconds between a lightning flash and its thunder. Using 343 m/s for sound in air, how far away, in kilometres, did the lightning strike? Give your answer to two decimal places.

Q15

CoreSpeed of sound

Steel is roughly 6,500 times denser than air, yet sound travels about 17 times faster in steel. This shows that

Stuck? The lessons explain every idea these questions use.