Sound Waves Essay

What is a sound wave A sound wave is generated by a mechanical vibration like a tuning fork. Vibrating objects also vibrate ambient media such as air. Like your ears, waves travel through the medium to detectors. Like other types of waves, sound waves are also affected by wavelength, amplitude, period, and frequency.

WAVELENGTH is the distance from one point of the wave to the next point, or the length of a part of the wave

This can be expressed as v 2 = (elastic property / inertia characteristic). The elastic properties are usually the bulk modulus or Young's modulus of the medium and the inertial properties are the density of the medium.

The red bar on the left side is used as a drive piston. If it moves sinusoidally from left to right, the resulting wave will be a sine wave. Waves are sine waves, wavelengths, amplitudes and frequencies are constant. This is seen as a tuning fork that essentially produces periodic sound waves. In the above one dimensional tube, each particle has a simple harmonic motion. The volume contained in one wavelength also moves the same. The displacement of this volume can be expressed as follows. s (x, t) = smax cos (kx - wt) where smax is the maximum displacement or displacement amplitude, k is the angular frequency, and w is the angular frequency. As with piston volume displacement, pressure change at any point can be expressed. This is represented by the following expression. dP (x, t) = dPmax sin (kx - wt) where dPmax is the maximum pressure change, k is the angular frequency, and w is the angular frequency.

Combining these two expressions yields the following results: dPmax = pvwsmax where the maximum pressure change (dPmax) is equal to the density.

Longitudinal waves can be conceptualized as pressure waves from time to time. The most common pressure wave is sound waves. Sonic waves are generated by compression media, usually air. Longitudinal sound waves are waves of pressure deviation alternating with equilibrium pressure, causing compression and sparseness of the local region. Substances in the medium are periodically displaced by sound waves and therefore oscillate. Regardless of whether people are talking or striking something, as people emit sound they will compress air particles to some extent. By doing so, they created transverse waves. When people hear the sound, their ears are sensitive to pressure differences and interpret the waves as different tones.

Auditory stimulation is sound waves. A sound wave is a mechanical pressure wave that passes through a medium such as air or water. Since there is no moving air molecule in the wave, there is no sound wave in the vacuum. Sonic waves differ in altitude, temperature, and medium speed, but at sea level and 20 oC (68 oF), sound waves move in the air at 343 meters per second. Like all waves, sound waves have four main features: frequency, wavelength, period and amplitude. Frequency is the number of waves per unit time, the sound is tone. Sound of high frequency (≥ 15.000 Hz) is higher (short wavelength) than low frequency (long wavelength; ≤ 100 Hz). Frequency is measured in cycles per second. For sound, the most common unit is Hertz (Hz) or cycles per second. Most people can perceive sounds between 30 and 20,000 Hz.