Time of flight measurement of speed of sound in air with a computer sound card

A computer sound card and freely available audio editing software are used to measure accurately the speed of sound in air using the time-of-flight method. In addition to speed of sound measurement, inversion behaviour upon reflection from an open and closed end of a pipe is demonstrated. Also, it is demonstrated that the reflection at an open end of a pipe occurs slightly outside the pipe. The equipment needed is readily available to any student with access to a microphone, loudspeaker and computer.