Measuring Sound Speed with Motion

Sound waves and motion are the focus of this high school physics experiment. The lesson connects how sound travels through air with how the sound changes when the source moves. It also shows how to measure the speed of sound in air.

Waves are disturbances that move through a material medium or th...

Unlike light waves, sound waves are disturbances that propagate through a medium, which could be solid, gas, or liquid.

Light waves are transverse waves that have oscillations perpendicular to the direction of propagation. Whereas sound waves are longitudinal pressure waves whose oscillations are parallel to the direction of propagation.