Question

A girl is sitting in the middle of a park of dimension 12 m × 12 m. On the left side of it there is a building adjoining the park and on right side of the park, there is a road adjoining the park. A sound is produced on the road by a cracker. Is it possible for the girl to hear the echo of this sound? Explain your answer.

Answer 1

If the time gap between the original sound and reflected sound received by the listener is around 0.1 s, only then the echo can be heard. The minimum distance travelled by the reflected sound wave for the distinctly listening the echo 

= velocity of sound × time interval ; 

344 × 0.1 ; 

34.4 m 

But in this case the distance travelled by the sound reflected from the building and then reaching to the girl will be (6 + 6) = 12 m, which is much smaller than the required distance. Therefore, no echo can be heard.