Sound

SREEPRANAD

January 11, 2023

The most basic question, which we are going to ask is: What is Sound?

This question is one of the questions which are obvious but difficult to answer. But in
physics, we define sound as follows:

Definition 0.1 (Sound) — It is the vibrations that travel through some medium as
a wave.

Basically, it is a type of energy made by vibrations. When an object vibrates, it causes

movement in surrounding molecules in the medium. These molecules bump to the
molecules surrounding them. After bumping it surrounding molecules, it rebounds (say,
by Newton’s third law of motion) and this makes sound produced by an object to be
periodic. But the sound made by humans doesn’t need to be periodic because the
molecules are applied by forces continuously. For simplicity, we only discuss sound waves
which are periodic. Now, if we produce a sound in a vacuum, then notice that we won’t
be able to hear it. Why do you think so? ... Well, the answer is simple. There are
not molecules (or particles) in the vacuum so that they can bump which makes us hear
sound.

1
SOUND Updated Mon 12 Dec 2022 3:00:00 IST

Now, a sound wave can be graphed into a sine curve, which is looks like the following:

Now, a sound has the following five characteristics:

• Frequency

• Time Period

• Amplitude

• Wavelength

• Speed

1 Frequency
Here is the definition of frequency:

Definition 0.2 (Frequency) — Frequency is the number of oscillations done by the

sound wave in a second. The SI unit of frequency is Hz (Hertz).

Say, a sound wave did 10 oscillations in 5 seconds. What do you think is the frequency
of the sound wave? It is 10
5 = 2 Hz. It is worthy to note that humans can hear sound
waves having frequency from 20 Hz to 20, 000 Hz.

2 Time Period
Here is the definition of time period:

Definition 0.3 (Time Period) — Time Period is the time taken by the sound wave
to complete 1 oscillation.

2
SOUND Updated Mon 12 Dec 2022 3:00:00 IST

Let’s take the previous example where the sound wave did 10 oscillations in 5 seconds.
5
What do you think is its time period? It is 10 = 0.5 s. Do you notice that the frequency
is inverse of time period?

Well, in fact it is true:

Theorem 0.4 (Frequency-Time Period Relation).

1
Frequency =
Time Period
1
Time Period =
Frequency

3 Amplitude
Here is the definition of amplitude:

Definition 0.5 (Amplitude) — Amplitude is the maximum extent of a vibration or

oscillation, measured from the position of equilibrium. In other words, amplitude is
the distance between the crest (or trough) to the x-axis of the graph (or equilibrium
state of sound).

Amplitude deals with the loudness of the sound. More the amplitude, more the loudness
produced by the sound wave. Less the amplitude, more the softness produced by the
sound wave.

3
SOUND Updated Mon 12 Dec 2022 3:00:00 IST

4 Wavelength
Here is the definition of wavelength:

Definition 0.6 (Wavelength) — Wavelength is the distance between two consecutive

crests or troughs in a sound wave. In fact, it is the distance between two corresponding
positions in a sound wave. The SI unit of wavelength is m (meters). It is denoted
by the greek symbol λ (Lambda).

Here is an example on wavelength. People who speak fast have short wavelength and
people who speak slow have longer wavelength.

5 Speed
Here is the definition of sound:

Definition 0.7 (Speed) — Speed is the distance travelled by the sound by the time
taken to travel that distance. The SI unit of speed is (as usual) m/s.

6 2-Important Relations
The three important relations, in the theory of sound are:

Theorem 0.8 (Frequency-Time Relation).

1
Frequency =
Time Period
1
Time Period =
Frequency

Theorem 0.9 (Speed-Wavelength-Time Relation).

Wavelength
Speed = = Wavelength · Frequency
Time Period

(You must have noticed the first one from previous section in the handout.)

Back to our discussion, we need to take a note that sound has different speed in different
mediums. The speed of sound in solids is pretty fast compared to the speed of sound in
liquids. The speed of sound in liquids is faster than the speed of sound in gases. Even the
temperature in the medium matters. The sound moves fast in warm atmosphere because
the molecules in warm atmosphere possess some energy compared to the molecules in
cold atmosphere.

4
SOUND Updated Mon 12 Dec 2022 3:00:00 IST

7 Sonic Boom...!
When an object moves faster than sound in air (say bullets, aircrafts etc), it is said that
the object is travelling at Supersonic speed. When an object moves in supersonic
speed, they produce shock waves. These shock waves has a pretty huge amount of energy.
In fact, these shock waves have enough energy to shatter window glasses and damage
buildings. The air pressure difference with this shock wave produces a very sharp and
loud sound called as Sonic Boom.

8 Reflections
As light reflects from luminous objects, sound also reflects from objects. Recall the law
of reflection of light.

Angle of Incidence = Angle of Reflection.

This law of reflection also holds for sound waves.

9 Echos
You must have been very familiar with echos. If you clap from a corner in a large hall,
you will hear the same sound again. This sound is called echo. This sound comes to
us after getting reflected from the other objects. Then why do you think we don’t hear
echos in other places? Basically, our brain can hear two sound wave if the difference
between their sensations is at least 0.1 s. Let’s say the sound has a speed of 350m/s for
now. Then, within 0.1s, it should have travelled 350 · 0.1 = 35 m. Hence, in order to get
an echo, the object from which the sound gets reflected should be at least 35 2 = 17.5 m.

10 Ultrasound and Infrasound

Recall that humans can hear sounds of frequency between 20 Hz and 20, 000 Hz. Sound
waves whose frequency is less than 20 Hz are called Infrasound and sound waves who
frequency is more than 20, 000 Hz are called Ultrasound.

We use Ultrasound in many ways, in our life:

• Ultrasound is used to clear parts located in very small objects (like headphones,
phone socket). They are first placed in a cleaning solution and then ultrasound is
produced there, which moves the small dust particles.

• Ultrasound is also used to detect cracks and flaws in metal blocks or pieces. They
produce the ultrasound and attach the detecters which detects the ultrasound. If
the detectors doesn’t detect any sound, then that particular part/block indicates
to have a crack or flaw.

11 SONAR
SONAR stands for SOund Navigation And Ranging. It is a device which measures
distance, speed and direction of objects in underwater. Let’s see how it works:

5
SOUND Updated Mon 12 Dec 2022 3:00:00 IST

The sonar device has a transmitter and detector. The transmitter transmits ultra-
sonic waves. These waves reach some object on the sea bed and gets reflected back to
the detector. If we let t to be the time taken, d to be the distance between the object on
sea-bed and the sonar device and v to be the speed of sound, we have: 2d = v · t.

The above technique is called as Echo-ranging. This technique is used to determine the
depth of the sea, locate underwater hills valleys, sunken ships etc.

12 Examples
Here we go with an example:

Problem 1
You are in a submarine and you are trying to find a ship which has pretty large
treasure, hidden by pirates. If you produce a sound from the submarine and it
returns in 4s, find the distance between your submarine and the treasure? Assume
that speed of the sound is 1500 m/s.

Let d be the distance between the submarine and the treasure. Then:

• Total distance travelled: 2d

• Total time taken: 4 s

• Speed: 1500 m/s

Then, 1500 · 4 = 2d. Hence d = 3000 m .