College Physics with MasteringPhysics 7th Edition by Jerry Wilson,Anthony Buffa,Bo Lou

Exercise 82

A pair of speakers are separated by 4.00 m. Speaker A puts out a constant volume of sound at a total power of 36.0 W. Speaker B operates at 100 W. You are located at 3.00 m directly in front of speaker A with the line connecting you to A being perpendicular to the line joining the speakers.
Neglecting sound energy absorption by the air, (a) how do the sound intensities at your location compare: (i) I B I A , (ii) I B I A , (iii) I B = I A , (iv) You can't tell from the data given ( Hint : Draw a sketch of the arrangement. You do NOT need to calculate each intensity; use ratio reasoning.) (b) Compute each speaker's intensity at your location. Do your results confirm your answer to part (a) (c) Compute the intensity level of each speaker and the total intensity level at your location.