Speed of Sound – a 21 gun salute
February 6th, 2010
Today is the anniversary of the Queen’s accession to the throne and there was a 21-gun salute from Edinburgh Castle to mark the occasion. You can see part of last year’s taken by video on the castle on YouTube. I happened to be down on Princes Street today, and caught a couple of the shots on video. Physics students should be able explain why you see the smoke from the cannon before you hear the bang. If the speed of light is 300 thousand kilometres per second and the speed of sound in air is 340 metres per second, can you work out how far away I was from the cannon?
You can also see this video at http://blip.tv/file/3186423.
Categories: Intermediate 2 Physics, Standard Grade Physics | Tags: cannon, sound, Speed of Sound | Comments Off
