Sound

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This article is about audible acoustic waves. For other uses, see Sound (disambiguation).
Sound measurements
Sound pressure p
Sound pressure level (SPL)
Particle velocity v
Particle velocity level (SVL)
   (Sound velocity level)
Particle displacement ξ
Sound intensity I
Sound intensity level (SIL)
Sound power Pac
Sound power level (SWL)
Sound energy density E
Sound energy flux q
Acoustic impedance Z
Speed of sound c

Sound is what can be perceived by a living organism through its sense of hearing.[1] Physically, sound is vibrational mechanical energy that propagates through matter as a wave.

For humans, hearing is limited to frequencies between about 20 Hz and 20000 Hz, with the upper limit generally decreasing with age. Other species may have a different range of hearing.[2] As a signal perceived by one of the major senses, sound is used by many species for detecting danger, navigation, predation, and communication. In Earth's atmosphere, water, and soil virtually any physical phenomenon, such as fire, rain, wind, surf, or earthquake, produces (and is characterized by) its unique sounds. Many species, such as frogs, birds, marine and terrestrial mammals, have also developed special organs to produce sound. In some species these became highly evolved to produce song and (in humans) speech. Furthermore, humans have developed culture and technology (such as music, telephony and radio) that allows them to generate, record, transmit, and broadcast sounds.

The mechanical vibrations that can be interpreted as sound can travel through all forms of matter: gases, liquids, solids, and plasmas. However, sound cannot propagate through vacuum. The matter that supports the sound is called the medium. Sound is transmitted through gases, plasma, and liquids as longitudinal waves, also called compression waves. Through solids, however, it can be transmitted as both longitudinal and transverse waves. Sound is further characterized by the generic properties of waves, which are frequency, wavelength, period, amplitude, intensity, speed, and direction (sometimes speed and direction are combined as a velocity vector, or wavelength and direction are combined as a wave vector). Transverse waves, also known as shear waves, have an additional property of polarization. Sound characteristics can depend on the type of sound waves (longitudinal versus transverse) as well as on the physical properties of the transmission medium.

Sound propagates as waves of alternating pressure deviations from the equilibrium pressure (or, for transverse waves in solids, as waves of alternating shear stress), causing local regions of compression and rarefaction. Matter in the medium is periodically displaced by the wave, and thus oscillates. The energy carried by the sound wave is split equally between the potential energy of the extra compression of the matter and the kinetic energy of the oscillations of the medium. The scientific study of the propagation, absorption, and reflection of sound waves is called acoustics.

Noise is often used to refer to an unwanted sound. In science and engineering, noise is an undesirable component that obscures a wanted signal.

Contents

[edit] Speed of sound

Main article: Speed of sound

The speed of sound depends on the medium through which the waves are passing, and is often quoted as a fundamental property of the material. In general, the speed of sound is proportional to the square root of the ratio of the elastic modulus (stiffness) of the medium to its density. Those physical properties and the speed of sound change with ambient conditions. For example, the speed of sound in gases depends on temperature. In air at sea level, the speed of sound is approximately 343 m/s, in water 1482 m/s (both at 20 °C, or 68 °F), and in steel about 5960 m/s.[3] The speed of sound is also slightly sensitive (a second-order effect) to the sound amplitude, which means that there are nonlinear propagation effects, such as the production of harmonics and mixed tones not present in the original sound (see parametric array).

[edit] Sound pressure level

Main article: Sound pressure

Sound pressure is defined as the difference between the actual pressure (at a given point and a given time) in the medium and the average, or equilibrium, pressure of the medium at that location. A square of this difference (i.e. a square of the deviation from the equilibrium pressure) is usually averaged over time and/or space, and a square root of such average is taken to obtain a root mean square (RMS) value. For example, 1 Pa RMS sound pressure in atmospheric air implies that the actual pressure in the sound wave oscillates between (1 atm <math>-\sqrt{2}</math> Pa) and (1 atm <math>+\sqrt{2}</math> Pa), that is between 101323.6 and 101326.4 Pa. Such a tiny (relative to atmospheric) variation in air pressure at an audio frequency will be perceived as quite a deafening sound, and can cause hearing damage, according to the table below.

As the human ear can detect sounds with a very wide range of amplitudes, sound pressure is often measured as a level on a logarithmic decibel scale. The sound pressure level (SPL) or Lp is defined as

<math>

L_\mathrm{p}=10\, \log_{10}\left(\frac{{p}^2}{{p_\mathrm{ref}}^2}\right) =20\, \log_{10}\left(\frac{p}{p_\mathrm{ref}}\right)\mbox{ dB} </math>

where p is the root-mean-square sound pressure and <math>p_\mathrm{ref}</math> is a reference sound pressure. Commonly used reference sound pressures, defined in the standard ANSI S1.1-1994, are 20 µPa in air and 1 µPa in water. Without a specified reference sound pressure, a value expressed in decibels cannot represent a sound pressure level.

Since the human ear does not have a flat spectral response, sound pressures are often frequency weighted so that the measured level will match perceived levels more closely. The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) has defined several weighting schemes. A-weighting attempts to match the response of the human ear to noise and A-weighted sound pressure levels are labeled dBA. C-weighting is used to measure peak levels.

[edit] Examples of sound pressure and sound pressure levels

See also the Sound pressure article.

Source of sound RMS sound pressure sound pressure level
  Pa dB re 20 µPa
immediate soft tissue damage 50000 approx. 185
rocket launch equipment acoustic tests approx. 165
threshold of pain 100 134
hearing damage during short-term effect 20 approx. 120
jet engine, 100 m distant 6–200 110–140
jack hammer, 1 m distant / discotheque 2 approx. 100
hearing damage from long-term exposure 0.6 approx. 85
traffic noise on major road, 10 m distant 0.2–0.6 80–90
moving passenger car, 10 m distant 0.02–0.2 60–80
TV set – typical home level, 1 m distant 0.02 approx. 60
normal talking, 1 m distant 0.002–0.02 40–60
very calm room 0.0002–0.0006 20–30
quiet rustling leaves, calm human breathing 0.00006 10
auditory threshold at 2 kHz – undamaged human ears 0.00002 0

[edit] Equipment for dealing with sound

Equipment for generating or using sound includes musical instruments, hearing aids, sonar systems and sound reproduction and broadcasting equipment. Many of these use electro-acoustic transducers such as microphones and loudspeakers.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Strutt (Rayleigh), J W; Lindsay, R B (1877). The Theory of Sound. Dover Publications. ISBN 0-4866-0292-3. 
  2. ^ For example, dogs can perceive vibrations higher than 20 kHz.
  3. ^ The Soundry: The Physics of Sound

[edit] Sound measurement

[edit] See also

Wikibooks' [[wikibooks:|]] has more about this subject:
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[edit] External links

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