Sound Waves

What is a sound wave A sound wave is generated by a mechanical vibration like a tuning fork. Vibrating objects also vibrate surrounding media such as air. Like your ears, waves travel through the medium to detectors. I can hear you. Like other types of waves, sound waves are also described as wavelength, amplitude, period, frequency. WAVELENGTH is the distance from one point of the wave to the next, or the length of a part of the wave. AMPLITUDE is the distance from the midpoint to the maximum displacement.

People can get more information from the basic characteristics of sound waves. The amplitude (or intensity) of the sound wave represents the magnitude of the stimulus, and the larger the amplitude, the louder the sound is generated. Stimulus sounds are coded at the frequency of sound waves, higher frequency sounds are higher in pitch. You can also measure sound quality and tone through the complexity of sound waves. This makes it possible to distinguish between bright and dull sounds, and natural instruments and synthetic instruments (Välimäki & Takale, 1996)

Like the light waves, the physical properties of sound waves are related to every aspect of our sound perception. The frequency of sound waves is related to our perception of sound pitch. High frequency sound waves are recognized as treble waves and low frequency sound waves are recognized as bass sounds. The frequency of the audible sound is in the range of 20 to 20,000 Hz and has the maximum sensitivity to frequencies falling in the middle of the range. As with the visible spectrum, the audible range of the other species is different. For example, hearing range of chickens is very limited, 125-2000 Hz. The audible range of the mouse is 1000 to 91000 Hz, and the audible range of Berga is 1000 to 123000 Hz. The audible range of our dogs and cats is between 70 - 45 000 Hz and 45 - 64 000 Hz (Strain, 2003).