Scribd
Upload
130 views

Lecture 2 (Basic Physics of Sound and The Decibe Scale)

The document discusses the basics of sound and the decibel scale. It defines sound as a series of pressure changes in an elastic medium that propagate as waves. The key physical properties of sound waves are frequency, measured in Hertz, and intensity, measured in decibels. The decibel scale is a logarithmic ratio used to quantify sound intensity levels relative to a reference value. The document outlines how frequency relates to pitch and intensity relates to loudness as perceived by the human auditory system.

Uploaded by

Geoffrey Alleyne
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
130 views

Lecture 2 (Basic Physics of Sound and The Decibe Scale)

The document discusses the basics of sound and the decibel scale. It defines sound as a series of pressure changes in an elastic medium that propagate as waves. The key physical properties of sound waves are frequency, measured in Hertz, and intensity, measured in decibels. The decibel scale is a logarithmic ratio used to quantify sound intensity levels relative to a reference value. The document outlines how frequency relates to pitch and intensity relates to loudness as perceived by the human auditory system.

Uploaded by

Geoffrey Alleyne
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 31

Basic Physics of Sound & the Decibel Scale

Tahani Alothman
2009
References

 Introduction to Audiology – Chapter 3 (Sound and its Measurement)

 Audiology Diagnosis – Chapter 11 (Pure Tone Tests)

 Lecture notes
Topics
 Sound waves

 Physical & psychological factors affecting sound waves

 Physical description of pure tones

 The decibel scale

 Frequency and intensity function of the human ear


What is Sound?

 If a tree falls in an uninhabited forest,


does it make a sound when it hits the
ground?

 Sound = series of changes in


mechanical pressure in an elastic
medium, such as air or water
 Humans are accustomed to hearing sound as a wave disturbance
propagated through air

 Three prosperities are important to produce sound waves:


 Force (i.e. something to set the sound source into vibration as when a tuning fork is
struck against a firm surface)
 A vibrating mass (i.e. the tines of a tuning fork)
 Elastic medium (i.e. air being the primary medium conveying sounds that the
human ear hears)

 Factors affecting sound waves:


 Physical factors
 Psychological factors
Physical Factors:
Frequency
Intensity

Psychological Factors
Human reactions to sound
Subjective experiences
i.e. pitch, loudness, sound quality and ability to tell the direction
of sound source
Two basic physical measures associated with pure tones:

Frequency
Intensity
It specifies the number of back-and-forth oscillations or cycles produced by a
vibrator in a given time as molecular movement occurs and sound is created

The number of times that the object producing sound vibrates each second

The number of cycles that occur in 1 second

Hertz (Hz) OR cycles per second (cps): the term or unit used to describe
frequency

The physical measurement of what is psychologically perceived as “Pitch”


The normal human ear can hear from about 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz

The human ear is most sensitive to the mid-frequencies around 1000 Hz to


1500 Hz

Frequencies that are less than this range are infrasonic

Frequencies that are greater than this range are ultrasonic

In English and French, vowels are essentially low-frequency sounds that


control speech intensity while consonants are essentially high-frequency
sounds that control speech intelligibility
Pure Tone
Pure tone: a single frequency of sound
Most sounds are made up of a mixture of frequencies and are called complex sound
(i.e. speech)
Each time a given frequency is doubled, the range between the two frequencies is an
octave
Harmonic: is a multiple of frequency
If you go up one octave above a specific sound, that higher sound is the first
harmonic
If the harmonic is lower in frequency than the specific sound, it is called a
subharmonic
Fundamental frequency
 The most prominent sound in a complex sound
 The lowest frequency of a vibrating system
 the lowest harmonic produced by a periodic sound, generally corresponding to the
sound's pitch
 The frequency of each harmonic must be a multiple of the frequency of the lowest
harmonic, or fundamental frequency
The perceptual equivalent of frequency
How you subjectively perceive sound
Not a scientific measurement like frequency
Frequency and pitch are related in that as the frequency of a sound
increases, the listener perceives a tone of a higher and higher pitch

 Increases in frequency cause increases in pitch

 Decreases in frequency cause decreases in pitch


The physical measurement of what is psychologically perceived as "Loudness“

The intensity of a sound is determined by the amount of movement or


displacement of air particles that occurs as a sound is created

The intensity of a sound wave is the force that moves it to its maximum amplitude

The greater the amount of displacement, the more intense, or louder, the sound

The amount of pressure that sound exerts against the eardrum

Measured in units called decibels (dB)

The normal human ear can hear from about 0dB to about 140 dB(pain)
The perceptual equivalent of intensity

How we subjectively perceive sound

Not a scientific measurement like intensity

Described with words such as "loud", "quite", etc.


The ability under many conditions it is possible even without seeing the
source of a sound, to tell the direction from which it comes

A complex phenomenon resulting from the interaction of both ears

When we localize, we identify the azimuth of a sound source

How we can localize?

b/c of the relative intensities of sounds and their times of arrival at the two
ears (i.e. phase)

 Interaural phase differences in the LFs


 Intensity differences in the HFs
 Reverberation: when the sound is
perceived to come from a direction
other than its source (i.e. acoustic
environment with hard surfaces)

 Free-field: an area with no hard


surfaces to cause reverberation
 Free fields exists only in such
exotic areas as mountaintops and
specially built anechoic chambers
 The way in which one sound can cover up or hide another sound
so that we dont actually hear it, despite the fact that it is present,
either at the same time, or immediately before or after

 When two sounds are heard simultaneously, the intensity of one


sound may be sufficient to cause the other to be inaudible

 This change in the threshold of a sound caused by a second


sound with which it coexists is called "Masking“
 i.e. experiencing masking in noisy situations in the form of
speech interference

 The sound that causes the interference is called: " Masker” or


“Noise”
 The sound of interest (the sound we want to hear) is often called:
“Signal” or “Target”

 Masking plays an important role in clinical audiology


 A Convenient way of expressing two lengthy numbers is to use the
Logarithm
 Bel: one unit established in such a way
 b/c a Bel may have a rather large value, the Decibel, which is one
tenth of a Bel is the unit of measurement of intensity used in
acoustic s and audiometrics

 dB: means one tenth of a bell


 Named for Alexander Graham Bell

 So, Decibel is: the logarithmic ratio between two sound pressures
or two sound powers
 Important aspects of the Decibel:

It involves a ratio
It utilizes a logarithm
It is therefore nonlinear
It may be expressed in terms of various reference levels, which must
be specified
It is a relative unit of measure
Intensity Level

 Sometimes its useful to express the decibel with an intensity


reference (IL)

 Unit: watt per meter squared (watt/m²)

 The intensity reference in a given system may be expressed as IR


(the no. of watts of the reference intensity)

 The output of a system (e.g. loudspeaker) may be expressed as IO

 So the ratio may be set up between the intensity reference and the
intensity output by using this formula:

dB = 10 x log (IO / IR)


Intensity Level

 The usual intensity reference (IR) is 10¯ ¹² watt/m² , then the term
Intensity Level (IL) may be used

 If IO = IR, the ratio is 1:1, because the log of 1 is 0, then the formula of
dB will give zero number of decibels

 0 dB does not mean that sound is absent

 Rather, it shows that the intensity output is the same as the intensity
reference
Intensity Level

 Remember decibel is a logarithmic expression

 If the intensity of a wave is doubled (e.g. by adding a second loudspeaker


of a sound of identical intensity)
 The number of decibels is not doubled but is increased by three

 So:
 Every time sound intensity goes up by 3 dB, it has doubled
 Every time sound intensity goes down by 3 dB, it has been halved

 Why?
 b/c the intensity of the outputs of the two signals and not the number of
decibels are added algebraically according to the principles of wave
interference and the rules for working with logs
Decibel Reference Levels

 10 dB or 20 dB had no specific meaning without specifying the


reference for the measure

 The Decibel Had Three Reference Levels:

Sound Pressure Level (SPL)

Hearing Level (HL)

Sensation Level (SL)


 dB SPL: Decibel Sound pressure level refers to the absolute
reference level for the decibel

 dB SPL equals 20 times the log of the ratio of an observed sound


pressure level of 20 microPascals (or 0.0002 dyne/cmº, 0.0002
microbar, 20 micro Newtons/meterº)

 because dB SPL is a physical measure, it is not affected by the


frequencies present in sound
dB HL: Decibel hearing level

Decibel notation used on the audiogram that is referenced to


audiometric zero

The human ear is not sensitive to all frequencies at the same


intensity level
Therefore, 0 dB HL represents an intensity equal to the threshold
of hearing sensitivity* of the normal ear at each frequency

Audiometers are calibrated in dB HL so that any decibel value


above 0 dB HL represents a deviation from normal hearing levels

Exp. 25 dB HL is 25 decibels above the normal hearing threshold


for that frequency

* Threshold of hearing sensitivity: lowest intensity level at which an auditory signal is


audible
 dB SL: Decibel sensation level

 Decibel notation that refers to the number of decibels above a


person's threshold for a given acoustic signal

 Exp. Pt.'s threshold is 45 dB HL, a signal presented at 20 dB SL


would be 20 dB above 45 dB HL or at 65 dB HL

 Pt’s threshold (45 dB HL) + 20 dB = 65 dB HL


Other Decibel Notations

 dB gain
 dB nHL
 dB peSPL
 dB A
 dB B
 dB C
Environmental Sounds
Frequency and Intensity Function of the
Human Ear

 The ear responds to different absolute intensities or different SPLs


as a function of frequency

 The ear is most sensitive in the mid-frequencies (1000-15000)Hz

 Because audiometers are calibrated in dB HL, no need to know the


absolute dB SPL/HL difference at each frequency

 The audiometer automatically corrects for the dB SPL/HL difference


as the frequency is changed
Threshold sensitivity of the normal ear as a function of frequency –
ANSI (1996) reference equivalent threshold sound pressure levels are
required to reach 0 dB HL

You might also like