Sound Waves

Alex Simon 1/31/11

PHY112-001H Prof. Safaie

Sound waves are mechanical waves which travel through air that result in the human perception of hearing. What phenomena do we sense that consist of or involve sound waves? Music is a good example. We experience music, which is inherently composed of different frequencies of sound waves. Imagine a working contraption, like a centrifuge or a hard drive, humming in activity. The humming is a secondary effect from the activity of the device, and is made up of sound waves. In this paper I will generally describe sound waves and their traits. Audible sound is basically air vibrating. In musical instruments, vibrating a string or reed, which in turns vibrates the air inside the instrument, produces sound. This vibration is coordinated to be at a certain frequency, which in turn produces a specific tone. Each tone, and how they are arranged, produces the music you hear. Each piano key produces a different frequency, because the strings that are stuck by pressing the piano key have different properties, i.e. different tensions and masses. The vibration of the string vibrates the air surrounding it, and the vibrating air makes its way to your ears, and then you hear music! In theory, all vibrations carry a note. Some vibrations are impossible to hear as humans, however. For
Figure 1 - Sound waves

instance, humans can only hear

frequencies ranging from 20Hz to 20,000Hz. Dogs have a higher threshold for detecting frequencies, and therefore can hear higher sounds, but not lower sounds. Any sound with a lower frequency simply means that it oscillates less frequently. That is, it vibrates slower. The speed of sound in air is right around 767 miles per hour. The speed of sound is literally the speed at which sound vibrations travel through or along a substance. I will list some examples to put
Figure 2 - A fighter jet breaking the sound barrier (transcending the speed of sound) creating a cloud of water vapor

this speed into perspective. High-speed trains typically

travel at around 150 miles per hour, and go up to 250 miles per hour. This is still far short of the speed of sound. An airsoft gun (remember my other paper?) usually will fire at between 250 and 500 fps, which equates to 170 to 340 miles per hour. The Boeing 747, an iconic, popular passenger aircraft, has a maximum speed of 594 mph. What about objects that surpass the speed of sound? The F-22 Raptor is an American fighter jet, which can travel at speeds up to 1500 mph. The Glock 16, a firearm very commonly used by law enforcement in the US, fires bullets at just under 800 mph. A larger bullet that is shot by an assault rifle can travel at nearly 1700 mph. And finally, the speed of light, considered the fastest speed possible by any matter, is nearly a million times the speed of sound.

Figure 3 - Decibel ratings based on dnagerouness to human hearing

Sound is found in many places, but always in the same form. It can occur at different frequencies and produce different notes, but in essence, all the sounds you hear in a song consist of the same energy.

References Dangerous Decibels. Web. 31 Jan. 2012. <http://dangerousdecibels.org>. "The Propagation of Sound." Johns Hopkins University. Web. 31 Jan. 2012. <http://www.jhu.edu/virtlab/ray/acoustic.htm>. "Sound Is Energy." Web. 31 Jan. 2012. <http://library.thinkquest.org/5116/sound.htm>.