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The speed of sound is the distance travelled per unit of time by a sound wave as it propagates through an elastic medium. More simply, the speed of sound is how fast vibrations travel. At 20 °C (68 °F), the speed of sound in air, is about 343 m/s (1,125 ft/s; 1,235 km/h; 767 mph; 667 kn), or 1 km in 2.91 s or one mile in 4.69 s.
c is the speed of sound in the medium, which in air varies with the square root of the thermodynamic temperature. By definition, at Mach 1, the local flow velocity u is equal to the speed of sound. At Mach 0.65, u is 65% of the speed of sound (subsonic), and, at Mach 1.35, u is 35% faster than the speed of sound (supersonic).
The speed of sound in any chemical element in the fluid phase has one temperature-dependent value. In the solid phase, different types of sound wave may be propagated, each with its own speed: among these types of wave are longitudinal (as in fluids), transversal, and (along a surface or plate) extensional. [1]
Those physical properties and the speed of sound change with ambient conditions. For example, the speed of sound in gases depends on temperature. In 20 °C (68 °F) air at sea level, the speed of sound is approximately 343 m/s (1,230 km/h; 767 mph) using the formula v [m/s] = 331 + 0.6 T [°C].
where is the Laplace operator, is the acoustic pressure (the local deviation from the ambient pressure), and is the speed of sound. A similar looking wave equation but for the vector field particle velocity is given by
where a 0 is 1,225 km/h (661.45 kn) (the standard speed of sound at 15 °C), M is the Mach number, P is static pressure, and P 0 is standard sea level pressure (1013.25 hPa). Combining the above with the expression for Mach number gives EAS as a function of impact pressure and static pressure (valid for subsonic flow):
Figure 1. Table 1's data in graphical format. Although given as a function of depth [note 1], the speed of sound in the ocean does not depend solely on depth.Rather, for a given depth, the speed of sound depends on the temperature at that depth, the depth itself, and the salinity at that depth, in that order.
Thus speed of sound in gases with higher molar mass have lower speed of sound). -- Jon Ayre 14:20 9th Dec 2005 (GMT) 331.5+0.607*T(degrees celsius) meters/second. -- Monohouse 2006 The linear formula commonly used for the speed of sound as a function of temperature is the first-order approximation of the square root formula.