Sound

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This article is about audible acoustic waves. For other uses, see Sound
disambiguation!.
"n a drum sound is produced when its membrane vibrates
Sound is a mechanical wave that is an oscillation of pressure transmitted through a
solid, li#uid, or gas, composed of fre#uencies within the range of hearing and of a
level sufficiently strong to be heard, or the sensation stimulated in organs of hearing
by such vibrations.
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Contents
$hide&
% 'ropagation of sound
( 'erception of sound
) 'hysics of sound
o ).% *ongitudinal and transverse waves
o ).( Sound wave properties and characteristics
o ).) Speed of sound
o ).+ ,coustics
o ).- .oise
+ Sound pressure level
- /#uipment for dealing with sound
0 Sound measurement
1 See also
2 3eferences
4 /5ternal links
Propagation of sound
Sound is a se#uence of waves of pressure that propagates through compressible media
such as air or water. Sound can propagate through solids as well, but there are
additional modes of propagation!. 6uring propagation, waves can be reflected,
refracted, or attenuated by the medium.
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The behavior of sound propagation is generally affected by three things:
, relationship between density and pressure. This relationship, affected by
temperature, determines the speed of sound within the medium.
The propagation is also affected by the motion of the medium itself. For
e5ample, sound moving through wind. "ndependent of the motion of sound
through the medium, if the medium is moving, the sound is further
transported.
The viscosity of the medium also affects the motion of sound waves. "t
determines the rate at which sound is attenuated. For many media, such as air
or water, attenuation due to viscosity is negligible.
When sound is moving through a medium that does not have constant physical
properties, it may be refracted either dispersed or focused!.
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Perception of sound
7uman ear
The perception of sound in any organism is limited to a certain range of fre#uencies.
For humans, hearing is normally limited to fre#uencies between about (8 79 and
(8,888 79 (8 k79!
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, although these limits are not definite. The upper limit generally
decreases with age. :ther species have a different range of hearing. For e5ample,
dogs can perceive vibrations higher than (8 k79, but are deaf to anything below
+8 79. ,s a signal perceived by one of the ma;or senses, sound is used by many
species for detecting danger, navigation, predation, and communication. /arth<s
atmosphere, water, and virtually any physical phenomenon, such as fire, rain, wind,
surf, or earth#uake, produces and is characteri9ed by! its uni#ue sounds. =any
species, such as frogs, birds, marine and terrestrial mammals, have also developed
special organs to produce sound. "n some species, these produce song and speech.
Furthermore, humans have developed culture and technology such as music,
telephone and radio! that allows them to generate, record, transmit, and broadcast
sound. The scientific study of human sound perception is known as psychoacoustics.
Physics of sound
The mechanical vibrations that can be interpreted as sound are able to travel through
all forms of matter: gases, li#uids, solids, and plasmas. The matter that supports the
sound is called the medium. Sound cannot travel through a vacuum.
Longitudinal and transverse waves
Sinusoidal waves of various fre#uencies> the bottom waves have higher fre#uencies
than those above. The hori9ontal a5is represents time.
Sound is transmitted through gases, plasma, and li#uids as longitudinal waves, also
called compression waves. Through solids, however, it can be transmitted as both
longitudinal waves and transverse waves. *ongitudinal sound waves are waves of
alternating pressure deviations from the e#uilibrium pressure, causing local regions of
compression and rarefaction, while transverse waves in solids! are waves of
alternating shear stress at right angle to the direction of propagation.
=atter in the medium is periodically displaced by a sound wave, and thus oscillates.
The energy carried by the sound wave converts back and forth between the potential
energy of the e5tra compression in case of longitudinal waves! or lateral
displacement strain in case of transverse waves! of the matter and the kinetic energy
of the oscillations of the medium.
Sound wave properties and characteristics
Sound waves are often simplified to a description in terms of sinusoidal plane waves,
which are characteri9ed by these generic properties:
Fre#uency, or its inverse, the period
Wavelength
Wavenumber
,mplitude
Sound pressure
Sound intensity
Speed of sound
6irection
Sometimes speed and direction are combined as a velocity vector> wavenumber and
direction are combined as a wave vector.
Transverse waves, also known as shear waves, have the additional property,
polarization, and are not a characteristic of sound waves.