As a sound wave passes through a gas, the compressions are either so rapid of so far apart that thermal conduction is prevented by a negligible time interval or by effective thickness of insulation. The compressions and rarefactions are adiabatic. (a) Show that the speed of sound in an ideal gas is where M is the molar mass. The speed of sound in a gas is given by equation. Use that equation and the definition of the bulk modulus from Section.
(b) Compute the theoretical speed of sound in air at and state how it compares with the value in a table. Take M = 28.9 g/mol.
