PHYS 1900

MODULE 1. – What is sound?

Acoustics is the study of sound.

What is sound?

Loosely defined, sound is the result of changes of pressure in the air (or any
medium) that creates an audible stimulus. This brings up that old philosophical
question: If a tree falls in the woods and no one is there to hear it, does it make a
sound?

By our definition – the answer is no. If it was heard, then it would make a sound, but
without it being heard, it is not sound.

So, the vibrations need to be heard in order to be considered sound. And in this
course, we are only going to consider sound that can be heard by humans. Other
species can hear things that we cannot.

Are there other conditions that would cause vibrations in the air to not be heard?

The vibrations could be too slow to register as sound. The lowest rate of vibration
that we can hear is about 16-20 vibrations per second. So, vibrations slower than
that would not be heard by humans.

On the other end of the spectrum, if the vibrations happen too quickly, we can’t hear
them either. That upper limit is about 20,000 vibrations per second.

Another condition? If the vibrations are too small or weak, the sound would be too
soft to hear. The lower limit of pressure change that can be heard is .00002 Pascals.
(That would be for someone with very good hearing listening to a 1,000 Hz tone).
We’ll explain what this means in more detail in a later section.

Waves
Vibrations that create sound travel in waves.

What does that mean?

Let's define what a wave is.

A wave is a change in a medium that travels through the medium, but does
not cause the medium itself to travel. Once the wave has passed through the
medium, the medium itself remains in its original state.

Here are some examples:

When you go to the Willy P Pioneers football game and they score a
touchdown, you do a human wave.

http://www.acs.psu.edu/drussell/Demos/waves-intro/peoplewave.gif

You stand up, and then your neighbor stands up and so on down the line. You
sit, your neighbor sits, and so on. This causes a change in the medium that
travels down the row of people. The change from sitting to standing is what
travels, not the actual people.

Another example is flicking a rope.

http://www.acs.psu.edu/drussell/Demos/waves-intro/stringpulse.gif

As you flick it, the rope goes up, then down. That rise in the rope travels from
left to right, traveling down the rope. The rope itself is not moving from left
to right.

Here’s one last example.

Imagine I have an open tube and tap on the end of it with the palm of my
hand.

http://www.acs.psu.edu/drussell/Demos/waves-intro/wavepulse.gif

The molecules of air near my palm will smoosh together. We call this
smooshing compression. The compression of molecules travels down the
tube. The molecules don't travel, just the compression.

http://www.acs.psu.edu/drussell/Demos/waves-intro/Lwave-Red-2.gif

These are all examples of waves.

Images courtesy of :

http://www.acs.psu.edu/drussell/Demos/waves-intro/waves-intro.html

Review

Sound is caused by pressure variations that create an audible stimulus.

 A wave is a change in a medium that travels through a medium, but does not
cause the medium itself to travel.

Sounds that humans can hear range between 20 and 20,000

vibrations/second and above 2 x 10-5 Pa (20µPa)

Quiz

Which of the following are examples of waves?

The movement of a stone dropping on the floor

The movement of ripples of water in a pond
The movement in a guitar string after being plucked
The movement of a spinning top

Which of the following could result in audible sound?

A guitar string vibrating at 196 times a second.

Wind blowing through leaves of a tree
A child’s hand waving back and forth
An 40,000 Hz ultrasound motion detector
An ant chewing on a piece of food