Question

An enormous thunderstorm covers Dallas-Ft. Worth. Your best friend Clark is a storm chaser and heads to the center of the storm to take some readings while you stay dry at home. While Clark is at the center of the storm, he sees and hears lightning strike a tree that is 160 m from where he is standing. You are 137 km from the tree. How long does it take for the sound to reach Clark? Assume the speed of sound is 343 m/s.

Answer 1

The sound takes 0.47 seconds to reach Clark

Step-by-step explanation:

We are analyzing the speed of the sound not the lightning. We need to ignore the irrelevant parameters in the question and make use of only those necessary to answer the question.

Speed of sound = 343m/s

Distance between Clark and the tree = 160m

recall, time of travel =
`(distance)/(speed)`

time =
`(160)/(343)= 0.4665 seconds`

∴ It takes the sound≈ 0.47 seconds to reach clark