SPH3U

Final Review – Unit 5: Waves and Sound

1. A wave on a lake has a cycle length of 0.620 m and a period of 0.300 s. What is the
speed of the wave?

2. A tuning fork resonates with the note A, which has a period of 0.00226 s and a wave
speed of 343.2 m/s. What is the wavelength, in centimetres, of the note A?

3. An airline passenger jet is travelling at a cruising speed of 907 km/h. If the local speed of
sound is 313 m/s, what is the Mach number of the jet?

4. The speed of sound in water is approximately 1496 m/s. Theoretically, how hot would
air need to be to have the same speed of sound as water?

5. A rope 4.0 m long has a tension of 1240 N between fixed ends. The linear mass density
of the rope is 1.9 kg/m. Calculate the first three harmonic frequencies of the rope.

6. The long, slow moan that blue whales produce is commonly measured as 16.02 Hz.
Suppose that a marine biologist is trying to measure this in a submarine that is
approaching the whales at a speed of 50.0 m/s. The speed of sound in sea water is 1560
m/s. What is the frequency of sound observed by the marine biologist in the submarine?

7. A glass of water is on a kitchen table. The floor of the room vibrates because of a
laundry dryer in action. For certain speeds of rotation of the dryer, stationary ripples are
observed on the surface of the water. Explain what is happening, and evaluate how
effectively the energy from the vibration is transmitted.