Chapter 15, Problem 89A

To determine

To Estimate:The speed of sound made by the hitting of the golf ball using a stopwatch. Whether the estimated speed is too large or too small.

Explanation of Solution

Introduction:

The frequency of wave varies when the source and observer move towards or away from each other. This effect on frequency is known as Doppler Effect.

To measure the speed of sound, start the stopwatch when the ball is seen to be hit and stop the watch when the sound reaches the detector. The speed can be calculated by dividing the distance, $200\text{ m}$ ,by the measured time.

The measured time would be too large because the impact is predicted by sight, but the impact sound cannot be anticipated. Thus, the calculated speed will be small.