It's Sonic

A bat is flying with the speed 18 m/s toward the barrier, when it distance from the barrier is 3.78 meters the bat emits an ultrasonic pulse with 34 kHz frequency. If the wavelength of the pulse is 1 cm, Calculate the time difference (in millisecond) between the bat emits the pulse and hear it.


The answer is 21.

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1 solution

Joel Toms
Aug 12, 2015

Firstly, the speed of sound:

c = f λ = 34000 s 1 × 0.01 m = 340 m s 1 . c=f\lambda=34000\,\mathrm{s}^{-1}\times0.01\,\mathrm{m}=340\,\mathrm{ms^{-1}}.

Now, let t s t\,\mathrm{s} be the time between the pulse being emitted and received. Consider the distance d m d\,\mathrm{m} travelled by the bat and by the pulse in this time:

d b a t = 18 t ; d_{\mathrm{bat}}=18t; d p u l s e = 340 t . d_{\mathrm{pulse}}=340t.

We know that the pulse travels 3.78 m 3.78\,\mathrm{m} to the wall, and ( 3.78 d b a t ) m (3.78-d_{\mathrm{bat}})\,\mathrm{m} back to the bat. So:

d p u l s e = 3.78 + ( 3.78 d b a t ) , d_{\mathrm{pulse}}=3.78+(3.78-d_{\mathrm{bat}}),

i.e.

340 t = 3.78 + ( 3.78 18 t ) 340t=3.78+(3.78-18t)

358 t = 7.56 \Rightarrow358t=7.56

t = 7.56 ÷ 358 = 0.0211 \Rightarrow t=7.56\div358=0.0211\dots

So, to the nearest millisecond, the time taken for the pulse to return to the bat is

21 m s . \boxed{21\,\mathrm{ms}}.

you must directly state either that this frequency is after the emission at this velocity so the solver can neglect doppler shift of sound waves or either put it in assumptions to avoid ambiguity

Mahmod Abass - 5 years, 9 months ago

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