Name: how sound travels through matter
Uploaded: 2023-04-30T11:10:50.000Z
Duration: 1 min 1 s
Channel: JoVE

K12 Standards

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NC K-12 Science Standard Course of Study

9-12

Physics

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Waves and Their Applications in Technologies for Information Transfer

PS.Phy.7.1

Sound Waves

Sound is a mechanical wave generated by the vibration of an object and requires a medium to propagate.
Whereas hearing is the ability to perceive sound waves by detecting the vibrations in the surrounding medium.
Sound waves cause the particles of the medium to vibrate and transport energy through it. Since the wave propagates parallel to the direction of the vibrations, sound waves are referred to as longitudinal waves.
During vibration, the particles move back and forth, resulting in high-pressure and low-pressure regions in the medium known as compressions and rarefactions, respectively.
In space, sound waves cannot travel since there are no particles to vibrate and propagate the sound wave.
Since sound is a pressure wave, it can be modeled similarly to periodic wave equations. When propagating in the air, sound waves can also be modeled in terms of the displacement of air molecules.

sound waves

Sound waves can be thought of as fluctuations in the pressure of a medium through which they propagate. Since the pressure also makes the medium&#39;s particles vibrate along its direction of motion, the waves can be modeled as the displacement of the medium&#39;s particles from their mean position.
Sound waves are longitudinal in most fluids because fluids cannot sustain any lateral pressure. In solids, however, shear forces help in propagating the disturbance in the lateral direction as well. Hence, in solids, sound waves are both longitudinal and transverse.
The medium absorbs a fraction of the energy propagated through the sound wave due to its viscosity. In each compression, a fraction of the energy is converted as heat, and in each rarefaction, a smaller amount of this returns to the wave. Hence, with time, a wave propagating through a medium loses its energy as random thermal energy to the surrounding medium.
The human ears collect sound waves in the air and channel them to the brain, which creates the perception of hearing. They are sensitive to a gamut of sound wave frequencies, from about 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz. This range is called the audible range.
This text is adapted from <a href="https://openstax.org/books/university-physics-volume-1/pages/17-1-sound-waves">Openstax, University Physics Volume 1, Section 17.1: Sound Waves.</a>

Sound waves can be thought of as fluctuations in the pressure of a medium through which they propagate. Since the pressure also makes the medium&#39;s ...

Education

JoVE Core

Unit 1

Sound

KEY TERMS AND CONCEPTS

how sound travels through matter

Sound travels through matter as pressure changes in a medium. These changes make the particles of the medium move back and forth around their mean position. Sound can also be modeled as particle displacement as the wave passes through air, water, or another material.

In most fluids, sound waves are longitudinal waves. That means the particles vibrate in the same direction that the wave moves. Fluids do not support lateral pressure well, so sound in liquids and gases mainly moves this way.

Solids behave differently. Shear forces in solids can help carry the disturbance sideways as well as forward. As a result, sound waves in solids can have both longitudinal and transverse motion.

Sound waves do not keep all of their energy as they travel. A medium with viscosity absorbs part of that energy. During compression, some energy turns into heat. During rarefaction, a smaller amount returns to the wave. Over time, the wave loses energy and becomes random thermal energy in the surrounding medium.

Human ears collect sound waves in air and send the information to the brain. That process creates the perception of hearing. The ear is sensitive to frequencies from about 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz, and this is called the audible range.

How Sound Travels Through Matter

Sound travels through matter as pressure changes in a medium. These changes make the particles of the medium move back and forth around their mean position. Sound can also be modeled as particle displacement as the wave passes through air, water, or another material. In most fluids, sound waves are longitudinal waves. That means the particles vibrate in the same direction that the wave moves. Fluids do not support lateral pressure well, so sound in liquids and gases mainly moves this way. <br...

sound as pressure waves

Sound Pressure in Longitudinal Waves

Sound waves are longitudinal waves that create changing pressure in a medium. Their displacement amplitude can be modeled as a function of position and time. As one column of the medium moves, nearby columns also move. The difference between these successive displacements produces a pressure change compared with the surrounding pressure. This pressure change is called gauge pressure. It varies across the medium because the pressure fluctuation depends on how much one point is displaced...

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perception of sound waves

How Ear Sensitivity Shapes Sound

The human ear does not respond the same way to every sound frequency. Sounds with the same pressure can seem louder or softer when their frequencies change. Ear health also affects this perception, and hearing can decline with age. Regular exposure to loud noises may also damage the ears over time. Pitch depends on both frequency and pressure amplitude, which is the size of the sound wave’s pressure change. Two sounds with the same frequency and pressure amplitude have the same pitch. If the...

speed of sound in solids and liquids

Why Sound Moves Faster in Dense Materials

Sound moves faster in solids and liquids because their particles are close together and can pass along disturbances quickly. Most solids and liquids are incompressible, which means their densities stay nearly constant throughout. When an external force acts on them, the molecules try to return to their original positions. That restoring motion happens because the particles interact with one another. These interactions let sound waves carry information through the material. As a result, sound...

speed of sound in gases

What Changes Sound Speed in Gases?

Sound speed in gases depends on gas properties, pressure, volume, and temperature. Gas molecules move freely, so gases are highly compressible. Because of that compressibility, sound waves travel more slowly through gases than through many other media. The speed of sound in an ideal gas can be found using thermodynamics. Thermodynamics links pressure, volume, and temperature, which helps describe how sound moves through a gas. Newton's laws of motion and the continuity equation from fluid...

deriving the speed of sound in a liquid

Sound Speed in Fluids: Bulk Modulus

Sound speed in fluids depends on a fluid’s bulk modulus and density. These two properties describe how stiff the fluid is and how much inertia it has. For mechanical waves in a fluid, that relationship follows the same pattern used for Young’s modulus and density in solids. The speed of sound in a liquid can be derived by treating the wave as a longitudinal wave moving through the medium. The derivation uses the gauge pressure expression and the impulse-momentum theorem. This same result...

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sound intensity

Measuring How Loud Sound Is

Sound intensity helps describe how loud a sound source is. It depends on how energetically the source vibrates, because those vibrations make the molecules in the medium vibrate as well. Intensity is the energy emitted per unit time per unit area. The area must be perpendicular to the direction the sound wave travels. Using time and area makes the measure reflect the source’s own loudness, even when the source vibrates over a longer time or spreads energy over a larger area. A sound source...

sound intensity level

Measuring Sound with Decibels

Sound intensity level helps measure how loud sound is. The human ear sends sound waves to the brain, and the brain turns those waves into hearing. The loudness of the surrounding environment affects whether a person can tell different sound sources apart. The ear can detect a very wide range of sound intensity. Because of that range, scientists use a logarithmic scale to describe intensity level. Intensity level is a ratio of two intensities, so it has no unit. The standard reference is the...

intensity and pressure of sound waves

Sound Intensity from Displacement and Pressure

Sound intensity can be linked to displacement and pressure in a wave. The key idea is to use the wave expressions and the definition of intensity. To do that, the power carried by the particles is written as force times velocity, and the force per unit area is treated as pressure. The particle velocity can be found from the displacement of the medium. A sinusoidal term averages to zero over time because it is positive and negative for equal parts of each cycle. Its square does not average to...

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sound waves: interference

Sound Wave Interference in Speakers

Sound wave interference can change the loudness of sound when two waves meet. Sound waves may be modeled as longitudinal waves, where molecules move around an equilibrium position, or as pressure waves. When two identical waves from the same source overlap, their crests or troughs can add together. This is called constructive interference, and it increases amplitude. If identical waves start in phase but travel different path lengths, they can become out of phase. Then a crest can meet a...

interference: path lengths

Interference from Different Path Lengths

Interference from different path lengths explains how two sound sources can create changing patterns in space. The sources may or may not start in phase, but they emit waves at the same frequency. When they are in phase, they are called coherent sources, and that is easy to arrange by feeding both speakers from the same source, such as a tuning fork. These synchronized sources start with the same frequency and the same phase. As the waves move outward, they travel different distances to reach...

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sound waves: resonance

Sound Waves in Tubes and Strings

Sound waves can form resonance patterns in strings and tubes when the boundary conditions match the wave frequency. On a string under tension, symmetrical boundary conditions create a node at each end. A node is a fixed point where the string does not move. Some frequencies then produce standing waves, while other frequencies interfere destructively. Resonance also appears in a hollow tube. In a tube closed at one end and open at the other, a vibrating tuning fork near the open end sends an...

beats

Sound Interference and Beats

Sound interference creates beats when two or more close frequencies combine. In music, this shows up as a changing loudness that rises and falls. The pattern comes from superposition, the adding together of waves. Constructive interference makes the sound stronger, while destructive interference makes it weaker. Music usually contains many changing frequencies from instruments and voices. A single sound at one frequency for a long time can feel dull or even irritating. It can sound like the...

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doppler effect - i

Doppler Shift in Sound and Light

The Doppler effect describes how the frequency of a wave changes when the source and the observer move relative to each other. It was named after the Austrian physicist and mathematician Christian Johann Doppler in 1842. He studied both moving sources and moving observers. A simple example is an ambulance passing a person standing on a street corner. As the ambulance approaches, the siren seems louder. As it moves away, the sound gets quieter. The pitch also changes. The high siren sound...

doppler effect - ii

Doppler Radar and Heart Blood Flow

Doppler effect applications appear in weather forecasting and medical imaging. In these uses, a change in frequency helps show motion. The reflected signal can reveal whether an object is moving toward or away from the source. Meteorologists use Doppler radar to study weather events. A transmitter sends radio waves at a set frequency toward the sky from a weather station. The waves bounce off clouds and precipitation and return to the station. If the reflected radio frequency decreases, the...

shock waves

Sonic Booms and Supersonic Motion

Sonic booms and supersonic motion happen when a sound source moves as fast as, or faster than, sound in the medium. In the Doppler formula for sound, it is usually assumed that sound travels faster than the source. When that assumption fails, a shock wave can form. As the source gets close to the speed of sound, successive wavefronts build up by constructive interference right behind it. Scientists once thought this pressure buildup would keep an airplane from breaking the sound barrier and...

echo

Echo Sound and Distance Detection

Echo is a reflected sound that returns after the original sound has been heard. The human ear cannot tell two sounds apart if they arrive within about 0.1 seconds of each other. When the reflected sound takes longer than that to return, the ear hears two separate sounds instead of one. This effect is easy to notice when the sound source is close to a surface that sends the sound back. If the sound and its reflection are separated by enough time, the result is an echo. A minimum distance of...

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key terms and concepts

Learn how sound moves as pressure changes through matter, why it is longitudinal in fluids, and how solids, heat loss, and the audible range affect hearing.

How Sound Travels Through Matter | JoVE K12

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JoVE Core Physics introduces the theory and application of fundamental physics topics, including kinematics, dynamics, fluid mechanics, statics, waves, and acoustics, with concise and easy-to-understand animated videos. Additionally, the scientist-in-action videos demonstrate the application of related concepts in classical and original research experiments performed in today's laboratories worldwide.

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Energy

HS-PS3-3

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Ohio’s Learning Standards and Model Curriculum

Physical Science

Energy And Waves

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PS.6

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PS.6.d

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3.2.2 9P.3.1.1.2

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Perception of Sound Waves

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Speed of Sound in Solids and Liquids

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Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information to compare mechanical and electromagnetic waves (specifically light and sound) in terms of wave characteristics (frequency, wavelength, period, amplitude, velocity, and energy).

Analyze the behavior of waves and their applications.

How Sound Travels Through Matter

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