A seismometer at a geological monitoring station detects the primary longitudinal wave (P-wave) originating from an undersea earthquake.
The P-wave travels through the Earth's crust at a constant speed of 5.8 km/s.
The monitoring station records the arrival of the P-wave exactly 14.5 s after the rupture occurred at the focus.
Calculate the distance, in kilometres, from the monitoring station to the focus of the earthquake.
Use the equation:
distance=speed×time \text{distance} = \text{speed} \times \text{time} distance=speed×time64 exam-style questions on Edexcel GCSE Physics 4.1 Wave properties, covering 4.1.1 Waves transfer energy and information, 4.1.2 Frequency, wavelength, amplitude, period and wavefronts, 4.1.3 Longitudinal and transverse waves, 4.1.4 The wave speed equations, 4.1.5 Measuring wave velocity, and 4.1.6 Calculating depth or distance from waves. Each one has a worked solution and a mark scheme showing where the marks go.