Don’t dumb it down too much
In: Physics
When you’re sending a ripple through material, there are two things that determine how fast that ripple will travel: how hard is it to move the material in the first place, and how readily does it ‘snap back’ once you’ve disturbed it. Those numbers are the density and the bulk modulus.
The speed of sound is the square root of (bulk modulus / density), and so it isn’t exactly set; the density of air changes depending on its composition and temperature, and I’m pretty sure the bulk modulus can vary but I haven’t thought about that for a long time. 😛
In solids, there’s a kind of similar calculation but it uses Young’s modulus, which I only have “oh, I’ve heard that name before” knowledge of.
Latest Answers