Measurement of the Velocity of Sound in Water by Optical Methods

摘要

Several new optical methods have been developed for the measurement of sound velocities in transparent fluids. The visibility pattern from stationary, progressive and pulsed progressive waves are detected by a fast response photomultiplier tube rather than visually, which allows the use of lower sound intensities. A theoretical expression is developed for the errors caused by diffraction in the near field of a circular transducer. The velocity of sound in distilled water was measured to be 1517.70 plus or minus .20 m/sec at a temperature of 34.00C. (Author)