Question

How could you test the hypothesis that elephants interpreted the ground signal as being farther away than the air signal?

Answer 1

Answer:

One way to test the hypothesis is to create two waves, one in the air and one on the ground at the same time. One of them for the elephant to get closer and another for the elephants to move away. Observe the reaction of the animal and with this we know which sound came first.

Explanation:

This hypothesis is based on the fact that the speed of sound in air is v = 343 m / s with a small variation with temperature.

The speed of sound in solid soil is an average of the speed of its constituent media, giving values ​​between

 wood      3900 m / s

 concrete 4000 m / s

 fabrics     1540 m / s

 earth       5000 m / s wave S

 ground    7000 m / s P wave

 

we can see that the speed on solid earth is an order of magnitude greater than in air.

One way to test the hypothesis is to create two waves, one in the air and one on the ground at the same time. One of them for the elephant to get closer and another for the elephants to move away. Observe the reaction of the animal and with this we know which sound came first.

From the initial information, the wave going through the ground should arrive first.