Nature, Behavior, and Properties of Sound

Claimed and Created by Nadiya Zafar (nzafar7)

Sound is a Wave

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6sSnMbPl5Q

https://www.khanacademy.org/science/physics/mechanical-waves-and-sound/mechanical-waves/v/introduction-to-waves

Mechanical

A sound wave is a medium (a series of interconnected or interacting particles) that carries the disturbance from one location to another, like air, water, or even metal. There is an original source of the wave, some vibrating object capable of disturbing the first particle of the medium. The sound wave is transported from one location to another by means of particle-to-particle interaction. If the sound wave is moving through air, then as one air particle is displaced from its equilibrium position, it exerts a push or pull on its nearest neighbors, causing them to be displaced from their equilibrium position. This particle interaction continues throughout the entire medium, with each particle interacting and causing a disturbance of its nearest neighbors. Since a sound wave is a disturbance that is transported through a medium via the mechanism of particle-to-particle interaction, a sound wave is characterized as a mechanical wave.

Longitudinal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LkLj8TS9VI

Sound waves in air (and any fluid medium) are longitudinal waves because particles of the medium through which the sound is transported vibrate parallel to the direction that the sound wave moves. A vibrating string can create longitudinal waves as depicted in the animation below. As the vibrating string moves in the forward direction, it begins to push upon surrounding air molecules, moving them to the right towards their nearest neighbor. This causes the air molecules to the right of the string to be compressed into a small region of space. As the vibrating string moves in the reverse direction (leftward), it lowers the pressure of the air immediately to its right, thus causing air molecules to move back leftward. The lower pressure to the right of the string causes air molecules in that region immediately to the right of the string to expand into a large region of space. The back and forth vibration of the string causes individual air molecules (or a layer of air molecules) in the region immediately to the right of the string to continually vibrate back and forth horizontally. The molecules move rightward as the string moves rightward and then leftward as the string moves leftward. These back and forth vibrations are imparted to adjacent neighbors by particle-to-particle interaction. Other surrounding particles begin to move rightward and leftward, thus sending a wave to the right. Since air molecules (the particles of the medium) are moving in a direction that is parallel to the direction that the wave moves, the sound wave is referred to as a longitudinal wave. The result of such longitudinal vibrations is the creation of compressions and rarefactions within the air.

Pressure

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8adOVT8UcTw

Since a sound wave consists of a repeating pattern of high-pressure and low-pressure regions moving through a medium, it is sometimes referred to as a pressure wave. If a detector, whether it is the human ear or a man-made instrument, were used to detect a sound wave, it would detect fluctuations in pressure as the sound wave impinges upon the detecting device. At one instant in time, the detector would detect a high pressure; this would correspond to the arrival of a compression at the detector site. At the next instant in time, the detector might detect normal pressure. And then finally a low pressure would be detected, corresponding to the arrival of a rarefaction at the detector site. The fluctuations in pressure as detected by the detector occur at periodic and regular time intervals. In fact, a plot of pressure versus time would appear as a sine curve. The peak points of the sine curve correspond to compressions; the low points correspond to rarefactions; and the "zero points" correspond to the pressure that the air would have if there were no disturbance moving through it. The diagram below depicts the correspondence between the longitudinal nature of a sound wave in air and the pressure-time fluctuations that it creates at a fixed detector location.

Behavior

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDj_HRaGqp4

Reflection

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnTAfCqzYZI

Reflection of sound waves off of surfaces can lead to one of two phenomena - an echo or a reverberation. A reverberation often occurs in a small room with height, width, and length dimensions of approximately 17 meters or less. Why the magical 17 meters? The effect of a particular sound wave upon the brain endures for more than a tiny fraction of a second; the human brain keeps a sound in memory for up to 0.1 seconds. If a reflected sound wave reaches the ear within 0.1 seconds of the initial sound, then it seems to the person that the sound is prolonged. The reception of multiple reflections off of walls and ceilings within 0.1 seconds of each other causes reverberations - the prolonging of a sound. Since sound waves travel at about 340 m/s at room temperature, it will take approximately 0.1 s for a sound to travel the length of a 17 meter room and back, thus causing a reverberation (recall from Lesson 2, t = d/v = (34 m)/(340 m/s) = 0.1 s). This is why reverberations are common in rooms with dimensions of approximately 17 meters or less. Perhaps you have observed reverberations when talking in an empty room, when honking the horn while driving through a highway tunnel or underpass, or when singing in the shower. In auditoriums and concert halls, reverberations occasionally occur and lead to the displeasing garbling of a sound.

Refraction

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UR2rjO0TkU0

Refraction of waves involves a change in the direction of waves as they pass from one medium to another. Refraction, or bending of the path of the waves, is accompanied by a change in speed and wavelength of the waves. So if the media (or its properties) are changed, the speed of the wave is changed. Thus, waves passing from one medium to another will undergo refraction. Refraction of sound waves is most evident in situations in which the sound wave passes through a medium with gradually varying properties. For example, sound waves are known to refract when traveling over water. Even though the sound wave is not exactly changing media, it is traveling through a medium with varying properties; thus, the wave will encounter refraction and change its direction. Since water has a moderating effect upon the temperature of air, the air directly above the water tends to be cooler than the air far above the water. Sound waves travel slower in cooler air than they do in warmer air. For this reason, the portion of the wavefront directly above the water is slowed down, while the portion of the wavefronts far above the water speeds ahead. Subsequently, the direction of the wave changes, refracting downwards towards the water. This is depicted in the diagram at the right.

Diffraction

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgxcvflVxDM

Diffraction involves a change in direction of waves as they pass through an opening or around a barrier in their path. The diffraction of water waves was discussed in Unit 10 of The Physics Classroom Tutorial. In that unit, we saw that water waves have the ability to travel around corners, around obstacles and through openings. The amount of diffraction (the sharpness of the bending) increases with increasing wavelength and decreases with decreasing wavelength. In fact, when the wavelength of the wave is smaller than the obstacle or opening, no noticeable diffraction occurs.

Diffraction of sound waves is commonly observed; we notice sound diffracting around corners or through door openings, allowing us to hear others who are speaking to us from adjacent rooms. Many forest-dwelling birds take advantage of the diffractive ability of long-wavelength sound waves. Owls for instance are able to communicate across long distances due to the fact that their long-wavelength hoots are able to diffract around forest trees and carry farther than the short-wavelength tweets of songbirds. Low-pitched (long wavelength) sounds always carry further than high-pitched (short wavelength) sounds.

Nature, Behavior, and Properties of Sound

Contents

Sound is a Wave

Mechanical

Longitudinal

Pressure

Behavior

Reflection

Refraction

Diffraction

See Also

Further Reading

External Links

References

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