Sound Waves

What Are Sound Waves?

 A sound wave is the pattern of disturbance caused by the movement of energy traveling through a medium (such as air, water, or any other liquid or solid matter) as it propagates away from the source of the sound. The source is from some object that causes a vibration, like someone talking or any type of sound. The vibration then disturbs the particles in that current medium; those particles will then disturb those next to them, and so on. The pattern of the disturbance creates a wave like pattern. The wave carries the sound energy through the medium, usually in all directions and less intensely as it moves farther from the source. For a sound wave traveling through air, the vibrations of the particles are best described as longitudinal. Longitudinal waves are waves in which the motion of the individual particles of the medium is in a direction that is parallel to the direction of energy transport.

Longitudinal Waves

Longitudinal waves are waves in which the displacement of the medium is in the same direction as, or the opposite direction to, the direction of propagation of the wave.

Transverse Waves

For transverse waves the displacement of the medium is perpendicular to the direction of propagation of the wave.

Frequency and Periods Relationship

T (period) = 1 / f       F (frequency) = 1/T

The frequency of a wave describes the number of complete cycles which are completed during a given period of time.  Frequency describes the rate quantity of oscillations or vibrations or cycles or waves per second measured in Hertz (Hz). Meanwhile a period is the time which it takes for such a particle to complete one full cycle, this is measured in a time unit depending on the wave (seconds, minutes etc.). Frequency and periods of inverses of one another.

Relationship Between Frequency and Wavelength

V=fλ

The wavelength of a sound is the distance between  The higher the frequency, the shorter the wavelength. adjacent identical parts of a wave, while frequency is the number of waves that pass a point per unit time.  So, the higher the frequency, the shorter the wavelength. The number of wave crests passing by a given point in one second depends on the wavelength.

Relationship Between Velocity, Frequency, and Wavelength

                                                                              λ=v/f           f=v/λ   

The frequency of the wave is set by whatever is driving the oscillation in the medium. Meanwhile the velocity is the speed in the given medium. The wavelength is found by using the speed and frequency found in that medium and dividing them.