Urgent! Physics Help!

Question

1. A fireworks shell explodes H=110 m above the ground, creating colorful sparks. How much greater is the sound level of the explosion for a person at a point directly below the explosion than for a person a horizontal distance of L=190 m away?

Answer 1

A fireworks shell explodes H=110 m above the ground, creating colorful sparks. How much greater is the sound level of the explosion for a person at a point directly below the explosion than for a person a horizontal distance of L=190 m away?

 

The intensity of the sound waves drops off as 1/r² where r is the distance from the point where the sound is made.  One observer is at a distance r₁=110 m; the other is at a distance of r₂² = 110² + 190² from the explosion.

 

Take the ratio of observer 1's sound level to observer 2's:

 

(1/r₁²) / (1/r₂²) = r₂²/r₁²

 

Plug in the values of r₁ and r₂ to solve.

Answer 2

I wonder why you posted the same question twice.   Please post once, it saves duplicate efforts on our part.

 

Also - I am curious, you said you were using Mastering Chemistry.  Is this a problem in a chem class?

I did the most study of this in an EE class on e/m fields and waves, chem seems a strange place for this.

There are a couple extra tidbits in the answer to the other post you might find interesting.