Sound Waves

Chapter seven
Sound
Waves

2
 Sound and Vibration
• Every sound is produced by something that vibrates.
Example:

• When you speak, the vocal cords in your throat vibrate.

• These vibrations cause other people to hear your voice.

• The vibrations produce sound waves that travel to their
ears.
• The other person’s ears interpret these sound waves.
 The Nature of Sound

Sound Waves

Sound is a longitudinal wave that is created by a

vibrating object. It can be created or transmitted
only in a medium and cannot exist in a vacuum.

4
The region of increased pressure is called a condensation.
The inward motion produces a region known as a rarefaction,
where the air pressure is slightly less than normal.

Amplitude-
is the maximum distance the particles in
a wave vibrate from their rest positions.

5
6
 Amplitude and Loudness

• When you play a song at high volume and low volume,

you hear the same instruments and voices, but
something is different.
• The difference is that loud sound waves
generally carry more energy than soft sound
waves do.
 Amplitude and Energy
• The higher the amplitude of the wave is, the more
compressed the particles in the compression are and
the more spread out they are in the rarefactions.
 Amplitude and Energy

• More energy had to be transferred by the vibrating

object that created the wave to force the particles
closer together or spread them farther apart.
 Amplitude and Energy
• Sound waves with greater amplitude carry more
energy and sound louder.
• Sound waves with smaller amplitude carry
less energy and sound quieter.
11
 Frequency:
Frequency: the number of waves produced per second (C)

12
The Frequency of A Sound Wave
Frequency is the number of cycles per second that passes by
a given location.
A sound with a single frequency is called a pure tone.

Pure tones are used in

push-button telephones.

13
Ultrasound
-sound waves with frequencies above the
normal human range of hearing.
Sounds in the range from 20-100kHz

Infrasound
- sounds with frequencies below the
normal human range of hearing.
Sounds in the 20-200 Hz range
14
15
The brain interprets the frequency detected by the ear
primarily in terms of the subjective quality called pitch,
or tone.
The higher the frequency, the higher the pitch.
Loudness is an attribute of sound that depends
primarily on the amplitude of the wave:
the larger the amplitude, the louder the sound.
Just as the amplitude of a sound wave relates to its
loudness, the frequency of the wave relates to its pitch.

16
17
 The Speed of Sound
• Sound waves can travel through other materials
besides air.

• As a sound wave travels through a material, the

particles in the material collide with each other.

• In a solid, molecules are closer together than in

liquids or gases, so collisions between molecules
occur more rapidly than in liquids or gases.
 The Speed of Sound
• The speed of sound is usually fastest in solids, where
molecules are closest together, and slowest in gases,
where molecules are farthest apart.
 The Speed of Sound and Temperature

• The temperature of the material that sound waves

are traveling through also affects the speed of
sound.
• As a substance heats up, its molecules move faster,
so they collide more frequently.
• The more frequent the collisions are, the faster the
speed of sound is in the material.
The Speed of Sound
Substance Speed (m/s) Substance Speed (m/s)

Gases Liquids

Air (0 °C) 331 Chloroform (20 °C) 1004

Air (20 °C) 343 Ethyl alcohol (20 °C) 1162

Mercury (20 °C) 1450

Carbon dioxide (0 °C) 259

Fresh water (20 °C) 1482

Oxygen (0 °C) 316
Seawater (20 °C) 1522
Helium (0 °C) 965

21
Sound Intensity
The amount of energy transported per second by a sound
wave is called the power of the wave and is measured in SI
units of joules per second (J/s) or watts (W).

22
The sound intensity I is defined as the sound power P that passes
perpendicularly through a surface divided by the area A of that
surface:

Unit of sound intensity is power per unit area, or W/m2

23
Example 1
12 × 10–5 W of sound power passes perpendicularly through the surfaces
labeled 1 and 2. These surfaces have areas of A1 = 4.0 m2 and A2 = 12 m2.
Determine the sound intensity at each surface and discuss why listener 2
hears a quieter sound than listener 1.

24
Example
Calculate the intensity of a wave if the
power transferred is 10 W and the area
through which the wave is transferred is
5 square meters.

25
sound wave passing through a spherical surface with area 4πr2
Example
A loudspeaker emits sound with a power output of 400 Watts. If the speaker is
placed at the center of a spherical dome with a radius of 15 meters, what is the
intensity of sound on the surface of the spherical dome?
• we know that P=400 W and r=15 m.

26
Decibels
Decibel (dB) is a measurement unit used when comparing two
sound intensities.
Example one :- the intensity of the sound is 8x10-12W/m2.
Find the Intensity level

If I = I0

27
Intensity levels can be
Intensity I Intensity 
measured with a sound (W/m2) Level (dB)
level meter.
Threshold of
1.0 × 10 – 12
0
hearing

Rustling leaves 1.0 × 10 – 11

10

Whisper 1.0 × 10 – 10
20

Normal
conversation (1 1.0 × 10 – 6
65
meter)
Inside car in city
1.0 × 10 – 4
80
traffic
Car without
1.0 × 10 – 2
100
muffler

Live rock concert 1.0 120

Threshold of pain 10 130

28
29
Example
The sound in a particular place has an intensity of what is the loudness of the
sound?
Note: is the threshold audibility of human ear.
Solutions:
Given:
Sound intensity = ,
Using the equation given.
(in dB) =
= = = 10 (5.3) = 53 dB

30
 THE END
THANKS FOR THE ATTENTION

31