You watch a distant woman driving nails into her front porch at a regular rate of 1 stroke per second. You hear the sound of the blows exactly synchronized with the blows you see. And then you hear 1
more blows after you see her stop hammering. How far away is she
340m
To determine how far away the woman is, we can analyze the sound delay between the last blow you see and the additional blow you hear.
Since the woman is driving nails into her front porch at a regular rate of 1 stroke per second, we can consider the time it takes for the sound to travel to you.
The speed of sound in air is approximately 343 meters per second (at normal room temperature). Therefore, the sound travels at a speed of 343 meters per second.
Let's say you see the woman stop hammering at time t, and then you hear the extra blow at time t + Δt.
The Δt represents the time delay between when you see her stop hammering and when you hear the additional blow. To calculate the distance, we need to find the distance the sound traveled during this time.
Distance = Speed × Time
Distance = 343 meters per second × Δt seconds
So, the distance between you and the woman is 343 × Δt meters.