Question

In which medeium does sound travel the fastest?
Salt Water, Fresh Water, Air, or Cast Iron

Answer 1

IRON

Answer 2

cast iron is solid and in solid the velocity of sound is maximum.....

Answer 3

Both good answer but Taufique is better because sound does travel faster througth solids.

Answer 4

Be careful in your use of the term "solid". From the Newton-Laplace equation for sound speed\[c = \sqrt{ P \over \rho}\]where c is the speed of sound, P is the bulk modulus, and \(\rho\) is the density of the medium.

Consider Mercury, which is a liquid at STP. The sound speed in Mercury is higher that than of the sound speed in lead (a solid at STP). http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/tables/soundv.html#c1

As a rule of thumb, sound travels faster through solids, but be careful in assuming all solids are faster than all liquids.

Answer 5

how about considering it as a trick question??
sound only travels in air
all othes cases are wave traveling....
could that be the way to........

Answer 6

@eashmore,i gave the answer in this way only for the given option.otherwise I follow Newton's Laplace equation for determining the speed of sound in any medium...

Answer 7

Sound does travel in any medium as a compression wave. There is no point calling these waves with different names.

What happens is that in solids you can also propagate transverse (shear) waves. I agree you can make the decision not to call them sound waves. But longitudinal sound waves do exist in all massive and elastic media.

Speed depends of the "hardness" of the medium and of its density.
Speed is slowed down by increasing density, it is speeded up by increasing "hardness".

If you compare water with air : water is about 1000 times as dense as air, but 14,000 times as hard to compress. So hardness wins out by a factor 14 and speed in water is greater by a factor √14 = 3.75.
Hence speed of sound in air : 340m/s
speed of sound in water : 1300 m/s

Answer 8

@Taufique Your answer is correct. I just wanted to make sure the asker had a clear understanding of why sound travels faster through iron than the other options.

I was not criticizing your answer, I just wanted to give a counter point to the sound speed in solids always being fastest. Critical thinking is key.