It depends upon the gas as well as the temperature. Do they want the speed in air.
The accurate formula for air is
V = sqrt(1.4 RT/M)
where T is the absolute temperature, R is the molar gas constant (8.317 J/mole K, and M is the molecular weight. (Use M = 0.029 kg/mole for air)
With those units, V will be in m/s
For a limited range of temperture, there are simpler linearized equations for the speed of sound. You can easily find them online. Some are at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_of_sound
The question said find the speed of sound at a certain temperature. What formula would you use?
Could someone tell me the formula so I could do the questions that correspond.
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Thank you :)
The "1.4" in that formula has more that two significant figures. It is exactly the fraction 7/5, a result that can be derived from thermodynamics of diatomic gases. For monatomic gases the value of the constant is 5/3.
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