pretty easy physics waves problem that I for some reason can't figure out?

Question

I'm having a brain fart today, so please don't criticize my stupid question:

A person hears the sound of a distant firing cannon 6 seconds after he sees the flash. How far is he from the cannon?

Thanks!

Answer 1

The speed of sound is about 341 meters/s (in dry air at 25°C and 1 atmosphere of pressure) so
331*6 = 1986 meters

HTH

Doug

Answer 2

No clue. We need to know the velocity of sound, which is highly dependent on atmospheric temperature. But in general:

s = vt; where s = distance traveled in time t at velocity v.

Thus, if you know v, then you can calculate s for 6 seconds. For example, at 70 deg F, v ~ 1100 fps; so the cannon would be about 6600 feet away in your case. [See source.]

Answer 3

This simply requires multiplying time by something that will give you a distance answer.

seconds × ? = metres

Algebraically, the multiplier must be metres/second.
That's a speed.
In this case, it's the speed of sound.
So multiply 6 seconds by about 344 metres per second, and you get 2064 metres, or about 2 kilometres.

Answer 4

6 miles?