JEE Main · Physics · Waves

Sound Velocity: JEE Main previous year questions

Name: Sound Velocity: JEE Main previous year questions
Creator: Lumi

3 questions in the 108 JEE Main shifts Lumi analysed, in 3 of 8 years. Pattern: Comes in cycles. 1 came in 2024–26. Here is how it is asked and which ideas come back.

Questions: 3; in 3 of 108 shifts
Years asked: 3/8; last asked 2024
Chance in a shift: 9%; calibrated model, how we compute it
Weighted estimate: 0.0; model; history: 0.0 a shift on average, typically 0.0

Key findings

01
Asked in 3 of 8 years with analysed shifts and in 3 of 108 shifts: 3 questions, #196 of 196 topics. Last asked in 2024.
02
100% of its questions since 2020 tested an idea no earlier year had asked; none repeated an idea from the year before.
03
No idea in this topic has been asked twice: every question tested something new.
04
JEE Main has asked 3 of the 55 ideas in this topic; 50 have never been asked, directly or inside another question.
05
Mostly asked as single correct (100%); 0% need a numerical answer, 33% are easy and 33% hard.
06
The skill tested most is calculation (67%), then multi-step (33%).

Questions a shift, year by year

Out of the 25 Physics questions in a shift. Years differ in how many shifts Lumi analysed, so each year is scaled to one shift.

Raw count: 2017: 0 in 1 shift · 2020: 0 in 12 shifts · 2021: 0 in 24 shifts · 2022: 1 in 24 shifts · 2023: 1 in 12 shifts · 2024: 1 in 18 shifts · 2025: 0 in 8 shifts · 2026: 0 in 9 shifts.

Up to 2023: 0.0; a shift, of 25
Since 2024: 0.0; 0.0
Usual gap: 1.0 yrs; between years asking it
Shifts with it: 3/108; 3% of analysed shifts

How it is asked

Difficulty, format and skill

Across all 3 questions on Sound Velocity since 2017.

Difficulty

QUESTIONS

111

Easy1 · 33%
Medium1 · 33%
Hard1 · 33%

Format

Single correct · 3 Q100%

Skill tested

Calculation · 2 Q67%
Multi-step · 1 Q33%

Repeats

New idea, or one asked before?

Each column is a year. Blue questions tested an idea no earlier year had asked; navy ones went back to an idea from an earlier year. 2017 is the first year, so everything in it counts as new. Heights are question counts, and Lumi analysed 1 to 24 shifts a year, so compare the split inside a column rather than heights across years.

’17’20’21’22’23’24’25’26

Idea asked for the first time
Idea asked in an earlier year

Coverage of the topic

JEE Main has asked 3 of the 55 ideas in this topic. 50 have never been asked yet.

Asked directly3 · 5%
Touched inside another question2 · 4%
Never asked50 · 91%

Ideas come from Lumi’s JEE syllabus map. A never-asked idea is not a safe skip: across all of JEE Main, 22% of questions since 2024 tested an idea no earlier year had asked.

Drill down

Idea, year, question

Every idea JEE Main tested in this topic, with its eight years. Open one to read the questions.

ideaAskedShareYears’17’20’21’22’23’24’25’26

Open1 · 33%33%1/8
- 6 Apr ’23 S2 · Q40
  The ratio of speed of sound in hydrogen gas to the speed of sound in oxygen gas at the same temperature is:
  easySingle correctNew idea
Open1 · 33%33%1/8
Open1 · 33%33%1/8

Squares are the 8 years with analysed shifts, 2017 to 2026. A number is the questions that year when there is more than one; the shade is scaled to one shift, so a year with more analysed shifts (1 to 24 a year) does not look darker. Share is of the level above.

Ideas

Every idea inside this topic

3 different ideas were tested; none came more than once.

Laplace Correction for Sound in Gases1×
speed of sound in gas from gamma r t m
Single correct · 1 shift
General Formula for Speed of Longitudinal Waves1×
ratio of speed of sound in two gases
Single correct · 1 shift
Speed of Sound in Gas Mixtures1×
speed of sound versus rms speed in gas mixture
Single correct · 1 shift

Idea	Times	Shifts	Format	Numerical
Laplace Correction for Sound in Gasesspeed of sound in gas from gamma r t m	1	1	Single correctCalculation	–
General Formula for Speed of Longitudinal Wavesratio of speed of sound in two gases	1	1	Single correctCalculation	–
Speed of Sound in Gas Mixturesspeed of sound versus rms speed in gas mixture	1	1	Single correctMulti-step	–

Times and shifts count every analysed shift. Across JEE Main, 78% of questions since 2024 went back to an idea an earlier year had asked; the rest were new. All repeated ideas

Every question

Sound Velocity questions, year by year

The opening words of each question as it appeared in the official paper, with the idea it tested. Open one for its options and the official answer.

Questions from the official JEE Main Paper 1 shifts published by NTA (CBSE for 2017). Questions NTA dropped are left out. Topic and idea tags, counts and notes are Lumi’s.