Question

When you hear a noise, you usually know the direction from which it came even if you cannot see the source. This ability is partly because you have hearing in two ears. Imagine a noise from a source that

asked May 16, 2021 165k views

When you hear a noise, you usually know the direction from which it came even if you cannot see the source. This ability is partly because you have hearing in two ears. Imagine a noise from a source that is directly to your right. The sound reaches your right ear before it reaches your left ear. Your brain interprets this extra travel time (Δt) to your left ear and identifies the source as being directly to your right. In this simple model, the extra travel time is maximal for a source located directly to your right or left (Δt = Δtmax). A source directly behind or in front of you has equal travel time to each ear, so Δt = 0. Sources at other locations have intermediate extra travel times (0 ≤ Δt ≤ Δtmax). Assume a source is directly to your right.(a) Estimate the distance between a person's ears. (they gave us the answer of .2... apparently the program is messed up and we have to use .2(b) If the speed of sound in air at room temperature is vs = 338 m/s,find Δtmax. (Use your estimate.)

(c) Find Δtmax if instead you and the source are in seawater at the same temperature, where vs = 1534 m/s. (Use your estimate.)