SOUND

How can we hear sound

SOURCE MEDIUM DETECTOR

Air
molecule
Rarefaction (decreased
Stereo air density)
Speaker
Compression (increased
air density)
wavelength
frequency range of hearing

ULTRASONIC
INFRASONIC AUDIOSONIC
Which state of substance would
sound travel through faster?

WHY?
Mediums:
• Sound travels through a solid faster, than through a liquid,
which is faster, than through a gas.

Speed of sound
Solid : Fast speed
Liquid : Medium speed
Gas : Slow Speed
Standard Temperature and
Pressure = 3.32 x 102 m/s
Vacuum : No Sound
1. Speed of sound in the air at temperature 0 ⁰C is 332
m/s. Calculate the speed of sound in the air at:
- 20 ⁰C
- 30 ⁰C
2. Speed of sound in the air at location X is 347 m/s.
What is the air temperature at the location-X?
Compressions and Rarefractions:
Compressions: area of sound waves where molecules are
closer together (E)
Rarefraction: area of sound where molecules are further
apart (B)
Wavelength:
Wavelength: distance from end of compression to the end of the next
compression (A)

Air
molecule

Rarefaction (decreased air

Stereo density)
Speaker

Compression (increased air

density)

wavelength
Frequency:
Frequency: the number of waves produced per second (C)
 Characteristic of SOUND
1. Pitch Note
2. Loudness
3. Quality
1. PITCH
Pitch is the rate at which the vibrations are produced.
The higher the frequency, the higher the pitch.
The more waves per
second (or the higher
the frequency), the
higher the pitch!
2. LOUDNESS= INTENSITY
• The loudness is a sensation of how strong a sound
wave is at a place
• Loudness is measured in decibel (dB).
• The loudness depends on the amplitude of the
vibration. It will be louder when the amplitude is high.
3. Quality
The word timbre also describes the term quality. As
different sources produce different sounds, the timbre
helps us to distinguish between them.
TONE
Note Tone Frequency Ratio Interval of Name of interval
musical
1 C 264 24 C:C=1:1 Prime (Perfect unison)
2 D 297 27 D:C=9:8 Second (Major second)
3 E 330 30 E:C=5:4 Terts (Major third)
4 F 352 32 F:C=4:3 Quart (Perfect fourth)
5 G 396 36 G:C=3:2 Quint (Perfect fifth)
6 A 440 40 A:C=5:3 Sext (Major sixth)
7 B 495 45 B : C = 15 : 8 Septan (Major seventh)
1 C’ 528 48 C’ : C = 2 : 1 Octave

If frequency of tone d is 297 Hz, Then the frequency of tone c is....

A. 264 Hz
B. 330 Hz
C. 352 Hz
D. 396 Hz
Mersenne’s Law
about Frequency of String
L

Tension
 String X and Y both have similar area, tension and made from the same
materials. But, the length of string X is 1/5 times of string Y. If the frequency of
string X is 400 Hz, Then the frequency of string Y is….
A. 20 Hz B. 80 Hz
C. 1600 Hz D. 2000 Hz

String 1 and string 2 both have a same area, tension and made from the same
materials. Length of string 1 is 60 cm and produce sound with frequency of 100 Hz,
what is the length of string 2, if it produces sound with frequency of 300 Hz?
1) String 1 and string 2 both have similar
area, tension and made from the same materials.
But, the length of string 1 is 1/4 times of string 2.
If the frequency of string 1 is 400 Hz, Then the
frequency of string 2 is….

2) String 1 and string 2 both have similar

area, tension and made from the same materials.
But, the length of string 1 is 1/8 times of string 2.
If the frequency of string 1 is 400 Hz, Then the
frequency of string 2 is….

3) String 1 and string 2 both have similar

area, tension and made from the same materials.
Length of string 1 is 50 cm and produce sound
with frequency of 200 Hz, what is the length of
string 2, if it produces sound with frequency of
400 Hz?
RESONANCE
The word resonance comes from Latin and means to "resound"
- to sound out together with a loud sound.

A
A
1st Tuning
fork 2nd Tuning
Fork 1

The result of resonance is always a big vibration - that is, a

loud sound.
CLOSED-END AIR COLUMN
Resonance is a common cause of sound production in
musical instruments. One of our best models of
resonance in a musical instrument is a resonance tube
(a hollow cylindrical tube) partially filled with water and
forced into vibration by a tuning fork. The tuning fork is
the object that forced the air inside of the resonance tube
into resonance
The term of resonance for air column
• has a node at the closed end (on water surface
• Has an antinode at the open end
1st Harmonic
ANTINODE

NODE
 Harmonic # of Waves # of # of Length-
Resonance in Column Nodes Antinodes Wavelength Relationship
1st 1/4 1 1 L= ¼ λ
2nd 3/4 2 2 L= ¾ λ
3rd 5/4 3 3 L= 5/4
1
…

… … … 2n …
L .
n-th (2n-1)/4 n n 4
L n  length or height of air column (m)
(2n - 1) λ  wavelength
Ln  h n  λ
4 n  order of resonance (1, 2, 3,...)
λ v  speed (m/s)
with v  λ  f 
T f  frewuency (Hz)
T  Period(s)
 (2n - 1)
Ln  h n  λ
4
λ
with v  λ  f 
T
1. The speed of sound waves in air is 340 m/s. Determine the fundamental
frequency (1st harmonic) of a closed-end air column that has a length of 67.5
cm.
2. TEXT BOOK pg. 106 no.2
3. Determine the length of an closed-end air column that produces a
fundamental frequency (1st harmonic) of 340 Hz. The speed of waves in air is
known to be 340 m/s.

4. A closed-end organ pipe is used to produce a mixture of sounds. The second

resonance in the mixture have frequencies of 1100 Hz. What is the frequency of the
first harmonic played by the organ pipe?
Doppler effect (or the Doppler shift) is
the change in frequency or wavelength of
a sound wave due to relative the Long Wavelength Small Wavelength

movement of the source or observer Low Frequency High Frequency

• The closer the distance of observer to the

source, the higher the frequency heard by
the observer.
 1. An ambulance drives away from you at 40 m/s.
The speed of the sound from the sirens in air
Equation for DOPPLER EFFECT
is 340 m/s. You are stationary as the
ambulance is driving away. If the frequency of
(+) Observer approach source
the ambulance siren is 760 Hz, what is the
(-) Observer leave source perceived frequency?
A. 680 Hz
B. 816 Hz

 vsound  vobserver 
C. 1074 Hz

f      f Source
D. 850 Hz

 vsound  vSource 
• v = velocity ( m/s )
(-) source approach observer • f‘ = observed frequency
(+) source leaves observer
• f source = frequency of source
(actual frequency)
An ambulance drives away from you at 40 m/s. The
speed of the sound from the sirens in air is 343 m/s.
You are stationary as the ambulance is driving
away. If the frequency of the ambulance siren is 850
Hz, what is the perceived frequency?
761 Hz
962 Hz
1,074 Hz
850 Hz
Types of sound reflection 2. Reverberation
Reverberation is the same as echo but the distance
1. Echo Sound here is less. The distance between the source of
the sound and the obstacle by which it is reflected
is less in Reverberation

The echo is produced due to hitting of the sound waves

with the obstacles which makes the sound to reflect
back.
Thus, Echo Sound is defined as: For example: Singing in the shower is an example of
The Phenomenon in which the sound wave is reflected reverberation. The walls are close to us and hence it is
and hence arrives to the listener after some time delay observed. Hence now the two waves are heard as a
after the direct sound. prolonged sound wave.
The walls should be less than 17 meters.
if we consider the single reflection of the sound source
then it is called True Echo