Sound: Physics Vibration Mechanical Wave Pressure Displacement Medium Air Water Psychology

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Sound

In physics,

sound

is a

vibration

that propagates as a typically

audible mechanical wave of pressure and displacement, through a medium such


as air or water. In physiology and psychology, sound is the reception of such
waves and their perception by the brain.

Acoustics
Acoustics is the interdisciplinary science that deals with the study of all
mechanical in

gases,

liquids,

and

solids

including

topics

such

as

vibration, sound, ultrasound and infrasound. A scientist who works in the field of
acoustics is an acoustician while someone working in the field of acoustics
technology may be called an acoustical engineer. The application of acoustics is
present in almost all aspects of modern society with the most obvious being the
audio and noise control industries.
Hearing is one of the most crucial means of survival in the animal world,
and speech is one of the most distinctive characteristics of human development
and culture. Accordingly, the science of acoustics spreads across many facets of
human societymusic, medicine, architecture, industrial production, warfare and
more. Likewise, animal species such as songbirds and frogs use sound and hearing
as a key element of mating rituals or marking territories. Art, craft, science and
technology have provoked one another to advance the whole, as in many other

fields of knowledge. Robert Bruce Lindsay's 'Wheel of Acoustics' is a well


accepted overview of the various fields in acoustics.
The word "acoustic" is derived from the Greek word (akoustikos),
meaning "of or for hearing, ready to hear" and that from (akoustos),
"heard, audible",[3] which in turn derives from the verb (akouo), "I hear".[4]
The Latin synonym is "sonic", after which the term Sonics used to be a synonym
for acoustics and later a branch of acoustics. Frequencies above and below
the audible range are called "ultrasonic" and "infrasonic", respectively.

Sound Wave Properties and Characteristics

Sinusoidal waves of various frequencies; the bottom waves have higher


frequencies than those above. The horizontal axis represents time.
Sound waves are often simplified to a description in terms of sinusoidal plane,
which are characterized by these generic properties:

Frequency, or its inverse, the period

Wavelength

Wave number

Amplitude

Sound pressure

Sound intensity

Speed of sound

Direction

Sound that is perceptible by humans has frequencies from about 20 Hz to


20,000 Hz. In air at standard temperature and pressure, the corresponding
wavelengths of sound waves range from 17 m to 17 mm. Sometimes speed and
directions are combined as a velocity vector; wave number and direction are
combined as a wave vector. Transverse waves, also known as shear waves, have
the additional property, polarization, and are not a characteristic of sound waves.

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