Simon Roig

Acoustics
Spring 2011

Huygen’s Principle, named after Ducth physicist Christiaan Huygens, states that any point of a
wave creates a circular pattern around it to where even the edges of the wave are emanating spherical
waves themselves. That’s why when there’s an aperture and a wave is traveling through it, every point
that it hits including the edges will create a semispherical wave shape and the aperture will become a
new source of wave propagation. The center of the aperture will have greater wave intensity because
the waves are summed together and amplified, whereas in the edges of the aperture the wave will have
less waves being complimented and the wave will be weaker. This principle can be exemplified if a
person calls from one room with an open door and another person is outside the room. The sound will
seem to the listener as if it was coming from the doorway because the source of sound has been masked
by the aperture in the room (the door), and the sound waves are being redistributed.
This principle explains reflection and refraction, as when light enters a glass of water and seems to
deviate from its previous path. The light waves, upon reaching the barrier of the water then travel
equally in all directions and the overall wave will be refracted by a level dependent on the density of the
new medium.
Thomas Young’s double-slit experiment proved that light and sound behave in a wavelike manner and
are not simply just particles as Newton expected. He created two small apertures and noticed that the
light created a pattern where some spots were illuminated and others were dim. The reason for that is
that when light passed through the slits, the slits became the new source and waves propagated in a
circular way, making the two waves interfere with each other, whether constructively or destructively
depending on what part of the pattern the waves are meeting at.
The same principle is explained with a ripple tank, where a tank with a glass bottom is shot with light,
and a whit sheet of paper is placed underneath the tank. The result will be bright and dim spots because
the crests of the surface of the water absorbs more light and resulting in a dim spot; conversely, troughs
will absorb less light and a bright spot will appear. As the wave on the surface changes, so will the
pattern of brightness at the bottom of the tank.
The law of reflection states that the angle at which the wave meets a barrier will be the same angle at
which it is reflected. It is important to note that with refraction both the speed and wavelength will be
altered upon reaching the new medium. Diffraction is the change in direction of waves as they travel
through an opening or a barrier in their path. Because long wavelength (low frequency) sounds travel
bigger distances than short wavelength (high frequency) sounds, low frequencies are diffracted more
easily than high frequencies. This can be exemplified by owls communicating via tree-diffracted hoots
while birds with higher pitched songs are unable to do so. Bats use echolocation to find moths by
emitting ultrasonic waves which are actually smaller than the moth and instead of diffracting from it, it
will reflect back and the bat will be able to determine where the waves are being reflected from.
A bat’s wave is 50,000 Hz, so with the formula Wavelength = Speed / Frequency
we can find that 340/ 50,000 = 0.0068 meters, or .68 centimeters, less the length of most moths.

http://www.physicsclassroom.com/Class/sound/u11l3d.cfm#diffrn