SCHOOL OF NATURAL SCIENCES

DEPARTMENT OF APPLIED SCIENCES & ENGINEERING

PHY 1420 – INTRODUCTORY PHYSICS II

Lecturer: Mr. Chileshe. A

TUTORIAL SHEET 3 – SOUND WAVES

1. A point source emits 30.0W of sound iso-tropically. A small microphone intercepts the sound
in an area of 0.7500 cm2, 200 m from the source. Calculate
a) The sound intensity there and
b) The power intercepted by the microphone.
2. A whistle emitting a sound of frequency 440 Hz is tied to a string of 1.5 m length and rotated
with an angular velocity of 20 rad s–1 in the horizontal plane. Calculate the range of frequencies
heard by an observer stationed at a large distance from the whistle.
3. At what speed is a car approaching a stationary observer if he hears the sound of the car horn
with a frequency 10% higher than the actual frequency? The speed of sound is 340 m/s.
4. One end of a steel pipe of length 660 m is struck a blow. A listener at the other end hears two
sounds at an interval of 1.89 seconds, one from the wave that has travelled along the metal
portion of the pipe and the other from the wave that has travelled through air. If the density of
steel is 8 × 103 kg/m3 and the velocity of sound in air is 330 m/s, find the bulk modulus of
elasticity of steel.
5. A source of sound is moving towards a stationary observer with a speed of 50 m/s. The
observer measures the frequency of the source as 1000 Hz. The speed of sound is 350 m/s.
What is the apparent frequency measured by the observer when the source is moving away
after crossing the observer?
6. A person standing 1m from a loudspeaker hears its sound at an intensity of 9 × 10-3 W/m2.
(a) Find its corresponding sound level for this intensity.
(b) Assuming sound propagates from the source as a spherical wave, calculate the sound
intensity at a distance of 45cm from the person and its corresponding decibel level.
7. We are standing a certain distance from four noisy juicers and hear a sound level of 77 dB in a
juice shop. What sound level would this person experience if three of them are turned off?
8. The pain level for humans has an intensity level of 120 dB.
(a) What is the intensity of such sound in W/m2?
(b) Compare that with a sound level of a whisper at 20 dB?

Mr. Chileshe. A