Sound Waves Flashcards
How are sound waves caused?
By vibrating objects.
These mechanical vibrations are passed through the surrounding medium as a series of compressions.
Type of longitudinal wave.
Where does sound travel to?
Someone’s ear drum and at which point a person may hear it.
Where does sound travel faster?
In solids than in liquids.
Faster in liquids than in gases.
Where can’t sound travel in?
Space as its mostly vacuum.
No particles.
Sound waves will be reflected by hard flat surfaces.
This is very noticeable in an empty room.
A big empty room sounds completely different once you’ve put carpet/funiture in.
Things absorb the sound quickly and stop it echoing around the room.
You hear a delay between the original sound and the echo because the echoed sound waves have to travel further and so take longer to reach ears.
Sound waves also refract when they enter different media.
Denser material they speed up.
However, since sound waves are always spreading out so much the change in direction is hard to spot under normal circumstances.
Higher frequency sound waves=
high pitched like a squeaking mouse.
Shorter wavelength.
Low frequency sound waves=
low pitched like a mooing cow.
Frequency of 100 Hz vibrates =
100 times each second.
Loudness=
amplitude.
Bigger the amplitude =
louder the sound.
