Measuring the Speed of Sound A student investigator is measuring the speed of sou...

Measuring the Speed of Sound

A student investigator is measuring the speed of sound by looking at the time for a brief, sinusoidal pulse from a loudspeaker to travel down a tube, reflect from the closed end, and reach a microphone. The apparatus is shown in Figure IV.1a; typical data recorded by the microphone are graphed in Figure IV.1b. The first pulse is the sound directly from the loudspeaker; the second pulse is the reflection from the closed end. A portion of the returning wave reflects from the open end of the tube and makes another round trip before being detected by the microphone; this is the third pulse seen in the data.

What can you say about the reflection of sound waves at the ends of a tube?

A. Sound waves are inverted when reflected from both open and closed tube ends.

B. Sound waves are inverted when reflected from a closed end, not inverted when reflected from an open end.

C. Sound waves are inverted when reflected from an open end, not inverted when reflected from a closed end.

D. Sound waves are not inverted when reflected from either open or closed tube ends.