Question

A ship searching for a sunken ship sent a sonar signal and detected an echo after 5 s. If ultrasonic wave travels at 1525 m/s^-1 in seawater, approximately how far down in the ocean is the wreckage of the sunken ship located?

Answer 1

 

Given:

Time taken for the echo to return ($t$) = 5 s

Speed of sound in seawater ($v$) = 1525 m/s^-1

Formula:

Since the sonar signal travels down to the wreckage and bounces back up, it covers twice the actual depth ($d$).

$$2d = v \times t$$

$$d = \frac{v \times t}{2}$$

Calculation:

$$d = \frac{1525 \times 5}{2}$$

$$d = \frac{7625}{2}$$

$$d = 3812.5$$