Audio Engineering

Acoustic Environment 87

Having made the metric conversions and obtained the density fi gure, we can then use the
basic equation for velocity

c



1 402 1 013 10

1 1955

344 67

..^5 )

.

.

(

m/s

(3.6)

Since we started with the dimensions commonly used here in the United States, we then
convert back to them by

344 67.m

1s

100 cm

1m

1.0 in

2.54 cm

1ft

12 in

1130.81 ft

s



Typical velocities in other media are shown in Table 3.1.

Table 3.1 : Typical Sound Velocities in Various Media (at Approximately 15°C)

Velocity

Media m/s ft/s

Air 341 1119

Water (pure) 1440 4724

Water (sea) 1500 4921

Oxygen 317 1040

Ice 3200 10,499

Marble 3800 12,467

Glass (soft) 5000 16,404

Glass (hard) 6000 19,685

Cast iron 3400 11,155

Steel 5050 16,568

Lead 1200 3937

Copper 3500 11,483

Beryllium 8400 27,559

Aluminum 5200 17,060