Question

A sailor strikes the side of his ship just below the surface of the sea. he hears the echo of the wave reflected from the ocean floor directly below 5.0 s later. how deep is the ocean at this point

Answer 1

Answer: 3750 m

Explanation:

1) You can find in the literature or internet that the speed of sound in the ocean is about 1500 m/s.

2) Then, you can find the distance travel by the sound wave in 5.0s with the equation distance = speed × time

⇒ distance = 1500m/s × 5.0 s = 7500 m

3) That sound went down until the ocean floor below and cameback all the way until the sailor heard it.

Then, the deep of the ocean fllor is half that distance:

deep = 7500m / 2 = 3750m