Question

A sound wave traveling at 343 m/s is emitted by the foghorn of a tugboat. an echo is heard 2.80 s later. how far away is the reflecting object? incorrect: your answer is incorrect. m

Answer 1

The echo is heard 2.80 s later, this means this is the time the sound takes to travel to the reflecting object and then back to us. So, during this time, the sound wave has covered the distance L between us and the object twice:
$S=2L$
The speed of the sound wave is: $v=343 m/s$, and since it is moving by uniform motion, we can find the distance covered by the wave using
$S=vt=(343 m/s)(2.80 s)=960 m$
And we said this corresponds to twice the distance between us and the reflecting object, so:
$L= \frac{S}{2} = \frac{960 m}{2} =480 m$
so, the object is 480 meters away.