A cannon is fired some distance away from you, and you wish to estimate that distance by determining how much sound energy enters your ear.

(a) How does the sound energy depend on the distance between the cannon and your ear?

(b) Now you use the dependence you described in part \(a\) to judge how far away the cannon is. First you estimate the distance assuming that none of the energy in the sound waves is dissipated (into, say, random motion of the molecules that make up the air), and then you repeat the estimate assuming that some of the sound energy is dissipated. Is your first estimate higher or lower than your second estimate?