Weather & air
Dry-air sound speed
Estimate ideal sound speed from a supplied air temperature.
A clear answer. Here’s how.
Uses c=sqrt(γRT) for ideal dry air, with γ=1.4, specific gas constant R=287.05 J/(kg·K) and absolute temperature T. Reports m/s, km/h and mph. Humidity, gas composition, frequency effects and real-atmosphere variation are excluded.
See a worked example
Worked example
A fixed demonstration, separate from the values you enter above.
- Air temperature (°C)
- 20
Example result
- Ideal dry-air sound speed (m/s)
- 343.231977677
- km/h
- 1,235.63511964
- mph
- 767.788067459