Question

A woman is swimming when she hears the underwater soundwave from an exploding ship across the harbor. She immediately lifts her head out of the water. The sound wave from the explosion propagating through the air reaches her 4.00 s later. How far away is the ship? Assume water temp is 25 C and air is 23 C

The answer on this site is wrong and only accounts for the distance over the 4 seconds of time between receiving the two soundwaves.

I know the v air = 345 m/s and v water = 1500 m/s I just can't come up with an equation to solve for the total distance the sounds traveled. We know the distance traveled was the same for both the Air and water soundwaves. We know it took the air wave 4.00 seconds longer to travel that same distance (s). How do I set that up and solve it? I have gotten:

S=Vair x t so t= s/Vair

S= Vwater (t-4.00)

S= Vwater (S/Vair - 4.00) But I can't isolate S after that.

Answer 1