Solving a Hallway Reflection Problem

[swatikiss]

I am struggling with the following problem. I believe it shouldn't be hard - i must be missing something ?

A tuning fork generates sound waves with a frequency of 246 Hz. The waves travel in opposite directions along a hallway, are reflected by end walls, and return. The hallway is 47.0 m long, and the tuning fork is located 14.0 m from one end. What is the phase difference between the reflected waves when they meet at the tuning fork? The speed of sound in air is 343 m/s.

If you could help, I'd appreciate it!

Thanks!

 

[Sirus]

Why don't you try it? Start with:

[tex]v=\lambda f[/tex]

where [itex]v[/itex] is speed of sound, [itex]\lambda[/itex] is the wavelength, and [itex]f[/itex] is the frequency.

 

[christinono]

Yeah, first find out how many wavelengths the waves travel before hitting the wall for the first time. Then, figure out what the waves do when they hit the wall (phase shift, i would think) and come back.