Sound

In what situation do sound waves not propagate?

May/June 2015

In what situation do sound waves not travel?

May/June 2015

Two sound waves X and Y are being compared. X has the higher frequency, while Y has the larger amplitude. How do the loudness and pitch of sound wave Y compare with those of X?

May/June 2015

An intruder alarm is altered so that it produces a quieter sound without changing the pitch of the note. How are the amplitude and the frequency of the sound affected?

May/June 2016

A ship at rest on the surface of the sea transmits sound pulses straight down towards the seabed. Any pulse reflected back from the seabed is detected $1.0\,\text{s}$ after transmission. A whale passes beneath the boat and a pulse is detected $0.60\,\text{s}$ after transmission. The speed of sound in sea water is $1500\,\text{m s}^{-1}$. What is the whale’s height above the seabed?

May/June 2017

Explain the difference between a longitudinal wave and a transverse wave. You may include a diagram, if you want, to support your explanation.

May/June 2017

A person who has healthy ears at a young age can detect a span of frequencies. What is the approximate frequency range?

May/June 2018

The diagram illustrates a loudspeaker emitting a continuous sound wave of frequency 200 Hz in air. Which diagram most accurately shows how the sound wave makes a molecule at P move in $\frac{1}{200}\text{ s}$?

May/June 2018

A loudspeaker and a microphone are positioned in front of a wall. The loudspeaker produces a sound that is picked up by the microphone. The microphone is linked to an oscilloscope, which is adjusted so that one division on the screen corresponds to $0.01\,\text{s}$. The microphone detects both the initial sound and the echo. The speed of sound in air is $300\,\text{m s}^{-1}$. What is the separation between the loudspeaker and the wall?

May/June 2018

The diagram shows a loudspeaker emitting a continuous sound wave with frequency $200\,$Hz in air. Which diagram most accurately shows the motion of a molecule at P caused by the sound wave during $\frac{1}{200}\,$s?

May/June 2018

Which frequency lies within the hearing range of a healthy human ear?

May/June 2018

State one use of ultrasound.

May/June 2018

Four sound waves are shown on the screen of a cathode-ray oscilloscope. Which sound wave becomes louder and has a pitch that gets lower?

May/June 2019

What is the approximate frequency range that a healthy human ear can hear?

May/June 2019

In air, the speed of sound is $c_a$; in water, it is $c_w$; and in ice, it is $c_i$. Which relation is correct?

May/June 2019

A student uses an oscilloscope to investigate the speed of sound $v$ in air. He is using the apparatus illustrated in Fig. 2.1.

May/June 2019

Sound from a ship is reflected back from a cliff. A sailor on the ship hears an echo $4.0\,\text{s}$ after the sound is emitted. The speed of sound in air is $320\,\text{m s}^{-1}$. How far away is the ship from the cliff?

May/June 2021

A sound produced on a ship is reflected off a cliff. A sailor on the ship hears an echo $4.0\,\text{s}$ later. The speed of sound in air is $320\,\text{m s}^{-1}$. How far away from the cliff is the ship?

May/June 2021

Students are asked about the uses of ultrasound. Three proposed uses for ultrasound are: P cleaning jewellery, Q tanning on a sunbed, R obtaining an image of an unborn baby. Which proposals are correct?

May/June 2021

During a demonstration, a teacher sets out a loud ticking clock, two hollow tubes A and B, a barrier, and a smooth surface. The clock serves as the sound source. Fig. 4.1 shows tube A and the clock, both kept in fixed positions to the left of the barrier.

May/June 2021

A man is positioned between two tall buildings, P and Q. His distance from P is $50\,\text{m}$ and from Q is $200\,\text{m}$. He blows a horn. The first echo from building P is heard, and then $1.0\,\text{s}$ later he hears the first echo from building Q. What speed of sound is obtained from this information?

May/June 2022

The speed of sound varies in the three states of matter: solid, liquid and gas. Which row indicates the medium in which sound is fastest and the medium in which sound is slowest?

May/June 2022

State one application of ultrasound.

May/June 2022

A sound wave travels through a substance. The diagram indicates the positions of the molecules of the substance at one moment. What kind of wave is a sound wave, and what is at X?

May/June 2022

A man is located between two tall buildings, P and Q. He is $50\,\text{m}$ from P and $200\,\text{m}$ from Q. He sounds a horn. The first echo he hears comes from building P, and then $1.0\,\text{s}$ later he hears the first echo from building Q. What speed of sound is obtained from this information?

May/June 2022

State one use of ultrasound.

May/June 2022

Three students, A, B and C, are measuring how fast sound travels through air.

May/June 2022

Sound moves at different speeds through different states of matter. Which sequence shows the three states of matter in order of sound speed from slowest to fastest?

May/June 2023

Ultrasound is a form of sound wave that a healthy human ear cannot hear. Which range of frequencies includes only ultrasound?

May/June 2023

A student strikes his hands together while standing near a wall and hears the echoes return. He makes each clap at exactly the instant he hears the echo from the clap before it. A different student begins a stop-watch at the first clap and stops it at the eleventh clap. The stop-watch shows $9.4\ \text{\,s}$, and the speed of sound is $320\ \text{m s}^{-1}$. What is the distance $x$ between the student and the wall?

May/June 2024

The diagram illustrates a loudspeaker that is making a sound. A student makes four statements about the loudspeaker. Which of the statements are correct?

May/June 2024

In air, the speed of sound is $330\,\text{m s}^{-1}$. Which sound is regarded as ultrasound?

May/June 2024

Which application is not a use of ultrasound?

May/June 2024

A sound wave is made up of compressions and rarefactions. What kind of wave is sound, and how does the pressure in a rarefaction compare with the pressure in a compression?

May/June 2025

What happens to a sound wave when the sound heard becomes louder?

May/June 2025

An ultrasound pulse is sent out from a sensor, and it is reflected back to the sensor by a crack in a piece of metal and also by the lower surface of the metal. The echo from the crack returns to the sensor $1.0 \times 10^{-5}\,\text{s}$ after the pulse is emitted. The echo from the lower surface returns to the sensor $1.5 \times 10^{-5}\,\text{s}$ after the pulse is emitted. The speed of ultrasound in the metal is $5200\,\text{m s}^{-1}$. Calculate the distance $x$ between the crack and the lower surface of the metal?

May/June 2025

At a single instant, the graph illustrates the pressure changes along a sound wave. Which point on the diagram shows a rarefaction, and what is the wavelength of the sound wave?

May/June 2025

Ultrasound is used to clean jewellery in a liquid bath. State one other use of ultrasound.

May/June 2025

A ship at rest on the sea surface sends sound pulses straight down to the sea bed. Each pulse that is reflected by the sea bed is detected after $1.0\,\text{ s}$ has elapsed since it was transmitted. When a whale passes beneath the boat, the received pulse arrives after $0.60\,\text{ s}$. The speed of sound in sea water is $1500\,\text{m s}^{-1}$. How far above the sea bed is the whale?

May/June 2025

Which row gives a description of ultrasound waves?

May/June 2025

The sound wave from a vibrating tuning fork is shown on the oscilloscope in Fig. 4.1. It is picked up by a microphone.

May/June 2025

A loudspeaker emits a sound wave with frequency $50\,\text{Hz}$. The amplitude of the sound wave is increased. What would be heard?

Oct/Nov 2015

An ultrasound scanner creates an image of an unborn baby. How does the scanner produce the image?

Oct/Nov 2015

A ship’s siren is reflected off a cliff. A sailor standing on the deck hears an echo $4.0\,\text{s}$ after the siren is sounded. The speed of sound in air is $320\,\text{m}\,\text{s}^{-1}$. How far away from the cliff is the ship?

Oct/Nov 2015

Audible sound waves and ultrasound waves are both made up of compressions and rarefactions.

Oct/Nov 2015

Which property of a sound wave gets larger as the sound becomes louder?

Oct/Nov 2016

Sound moves through solids, liquids and gases at different speeds. Which list arranges these states of matter in increasing order of speed of sound (from slowest to fastest)?

Oct/Nov 2016

A man is positioned between two tall buildings, $P$ and $Q$. This sketch is not to scale. He is $50\ \text{m}$ away from $P$ and $200\ \text{m}$ away from $Q$. He discharges a gun, and the first two echoes that he hears are $1.0\ \text{s}$ apart. Calculate the speed of sound from this observation.

Oct/Nov 2016

Fig. 5.1 shows a loudspeaker positioned inside a glass bell-jar containing air. The loudspeaker emits a sound with frequency $2200\,\text{Hz}$.

Oct/Nov 2016

Which row shows the speed of sound in air, in water and in steel?

Oct/Nov 2017

When a sound wave moves from one medium into another, its wavelength becomes longer. What happens to the frequency and the speed of the sound?

Oct/Nov 2017

A sound wave in a solid is shown as a sequence of lines. The diagram indicates compressions $C$ and rarefactions $R$ at a particular moment. Which statement is correct?

Oct/Nov 2017

Which row shows the speed of sound in air, in water and in steel?

Oct/Nov 2017

Some medical procedures make use of ultrasound.

Oct/Nov 2017

Fig. 6.1 depicts a girl positioned a few hundred metres ahead of a large building. She operates a signal generator together with a loudspeaker to produce a brief pulse of sound directed at the building. The sound frequency is 3700 Hz. After a short interval, the girl hears an echo.

Oct/Nov 2017

What are the lowest and highest frequencies of sound that a person with normal hearing can detect?

Oct/Nov 2018

Ultrasound has several applications in engineering and medicine. For which purpose is ultrasound not used?

Oct/Nov 2018

The diagram displays the trace on an oscilloscope screen. The initial peak is produced when a sound pulse is sent out. The later, smaller peak is the echo that returns from a wall. The trace sweeps across the screen in $24\,\text{ms}$. How long does it take the sound to reach the wall?

Oct/Nov 2018

Ultrasound is employed to chart the ocean floor. In one survey, the water depth is 1200 m. An ultrasound pulse is transmitted from the surface and, when it comes back to the ship, a second pulse is sent straight away. Over any interval of 8.0 s, five pulses are transmitted downwards from the surface. Calculate the speed of the ultrasound in water.

Oct/Nov 2018

Both sound and ultrasound are waves that can travel through solids, liquids and gases. Fig. 9.1 shows a longitudinal wave with frequency $25\,000\,\text{Hz}$ moving through oil. Fig. 9.2 indicates the centres of the compressions of the sound wave in the liquid.

Oct/Nov 2018

A student and her friend obtain an approximate value for the speed of sound in air by using echoes. She positions herself a long way from a wall that reflects sound. She claps at a steady rate. She then alters her clapping rate until each clap matches the echo from the previous clap. Her friend uses a stopwatch to find the time $t$ between claps. They measure how far the wall is away. The time $t$ between claps is measured four times. The values of $t$, in seconds, are listed below. $0.87 \quad 0.97 \quad 0.94 \quad 0.88$

Oct/Nov 2018

A person detects an echo once a sound wave reflects from a solid cliff face. What produces the echo?

Oct/Nov 2019

What is a representative value for the speed of sound in air?

Oct/Nov 2019

Which row gives the speed of sound in air ($c_a$), liquid ($c_L$) and solid ($c_S$), arranged from the slowest to the fastest?

Oct/Nov 2019

A man is positioned $80\,\text{m}$ in front of a cliff face. He produces a loud bang and waits for the echo. He produces a loud bang every second. He hears an echo exactly halfway between the bang that produced it and the following bang. What is the speed of sound?

Oct/Nov 2019

Sound and ultrasound are both longitudinal waves.

Oct/Nov 2019

Which description of a sound wave is accurate?

Oct/Nov 2020

In which medium does sound travel the most quickly?

Oct/Nov 2020

In which medium does sound travel the fastest?

Oct/Nov 2020

A scientific research boat sends out ultrasound pulses to locate fish below it. An ultrasound pulse is reflected back from a shoal of fish $6000\,\text{m}$ vertically beneath the boat. The following pulse is transmitted $2.0\,\text{s}$ after the echo from the earlier pulse is detected. The speed of ultrasound in water is $1500\,\text{m s}^{-1}$. What is the time gap between the two pulses?

Oct/Nov 2020

Which row gives the correct description of ultrasound?

Oct/Nov 2020

Two students work out the speed of sound in air using an echo method. One student is positioned a long way from a tall building, as shown in Fig. 4.1.

Oct/Nov 2020

A student is positioned a distance $x$ from a large wall. He claps his hands at a steady rhythm so that every clap lines up with the echo from the one before it. During a time interval $t$, he claps his hands $N$ times. Which expression is used to calculate the speed of sound in air?

Oct/Nov 2021

An ultrasound scanner creates an image of an unborn baby. What does the scanner use in order to form an image of the baby?

Oct/Nov 2021

A microphone picks up a musical sound, and the resulting signal is sent to an oscilloscope. The diagram shows the trace that is displayed on the screen. The spot of light on the oscilloscope screen takes $1.2\ \text{ms}$ to move from one side to the other. What is the frequency of the musical sound?

Oct/Nov 2021

Which of the following is most closely linked to echoes?

Oct/Nov 2021

An ultrasound scanner forms an image of an unborn baby. What does the scanner use to create the baby's image?

Oct/Nov 2021

A note produces a sound wave, which is shown on the screen of a cathode-ray oscilloscope. The time-base is set to $5\,\text{ms}$ per division. Determine the frequency of the note.

Oct/Nov 2022

Which two frequencies lie outside the audible range for a healthy human ear?

Oct/Nov 2022

Sound waves appear as a trace on the screen of an oscilloscope. Which trace represents a sound that gets quieter as its pitch increases?

Oct/Nov 2022

A sound wave in air or water is made up of compressions and rarefactions.

Oct/Nov 2022

Which range of sound frequencies contains only frequencies that a healthy human ear can hear?

Oct/Nov 2023

A bell mounted on the wall outside a classroom sounds. A student is positioned at point X, as shown in the overhead view. The classroom door is shut, and the student inside the room at X hears the bell. The door is then opened, and the sound from the bell heard by the student becomes louder. What causes the sound reaching the student to be louder?

Oct/Nov 2023

The loudspeaker in Fig. 6.1 emits a sound whose frequency is $800\,\text{Hz}$.

Oct/Nov 2023

A person hears an echo when a sound reflects off a solid cliff face. What produces the echo?

Oct/Nov 2024

Which row shows the velocity and wavelength for an ultrasound wave?

Oct/Nov 2024

Ultrasound is a longitudinal wave, so it cannot be heard by humans because its frequency is too high for human hearing.

Oct/Nov 2024

The statements are about sound waves. Three words are missing. Sound waves are longitudinal waves made up of areas of greater pressure called gap 1 and areas of lower pressure called gap 2. An echo happens when a sound is gap 3. Which words should fill gaps 1, 2 and 3?

Oct/Nov 2025

A firework is fired straight up from the ground. At a height of $360\,\text{m}$, it bursts and gives off coloured light. A student standing on the ground beneath the firework wrongly times the interval between seeing the coloured light and hearing the explosion. The student records a value of $1.8\,\text{s}$. What speed of sound does the student's result imply?

Oct/Nov 2025

A loudspeaker emits a sound wave with frequency $50\,\text{Hz}$. The amplitude of the sound wave is made larger. What will be heard?

Oct/Nov 2025

The table gives the speed and wavelength of different sound waves in four materials. Which of these waves are ultrasound waves?

Oct/Nov 2025