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9.2 Notes

This document covers the fundamentals of sound, including how it is produced, the nature of sound waves, and the relationship between pitch, loudness, and quality. It describes experiments to measure the speed of sound and demonstrates the concept of echoes and their applications in technology. Key characteristics of sound waves and methods for sound transmission are also discussed.

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8 views9 pages

9.2 Notes

This document covers the fundamentals of sound, including how it is produced, the nature of sound waves, and the relationship between pitch, loudness, and quality. It describes experiments to measure the speed of sound and demonstrates the concept of echoes and their applications in technology. Key characteristics of sound waves and methods for sound transmission are also discussed.

Uploaded by

jnrnormie
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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9.

2 Sound
Objectives.

By the end of the subtopic learners should be able to:


 Describe how sound is produced.
 Describe longitudinal nature of sound waves.
 Describe experiments to determine the speed of sound in air.
 Relate pitch, loudness and quality of sound waves to amplitude and
frequency.
 Describe echoes.

Sources of sound

 Sound is produced when materials vibrate.


 The vibrating body causes the particles of the medium (water, air or
metal) around it to vibrate.
 Sound waves consist of areas of high and low pressure called
compressions and rarefactions, respectively.
 The direction of propagation is parallel to the vibrations of the source
hence sound waves are longitudinal waves.
 A compression is the part of the wave that is pushed together and this is
the wave's crest.
 A rarefaction is that part of a wave that is spread out and this is the
wave's trough.
 In terms of density a rarefaction is the part of the wave that has the
lowest density whilst a compression is that part of the wave with the
highest density.

Fig. 9.2.1: Compressions and rarefactions in sound waves.


Fig 9.2.2: A tuning fork and some basic music instruments

 It should be noted that not all sound waves are audible to the human
ear.
 The generally accepted standard range of audible frequencies is 20 Hz
to 20 kHz, although the range of frequencies individuals hear is
greatly influenced by environmental factors.
 The SI unit of audio frequency is the hertz (Hz).

Experiment 9.2.1: Sound production using a ruler.

Apparatus:

1. Ruler (30 cm or metre ruler).


2. Table or work bench.

Method:

1. Place the ruler at the edge of the table with a known length over
lapping the table as shown in Fig. 9.2.3 below. Record this length.
2. Firmly press the ruler on the table such that it does not move.
3. Press downwards the end of the ruler over lapping and release to allow
it to vibrate.
4. Observe the sound that is produced.
5. Change the length and again observe the sound produced.

Fig. 9.2.3: vibrating a ruler to note the sound produced.

Expected results:

The shorter the over lapping part of the ruler the higher the pitch. So
reducing the over lapping part of the ruler increases the pitch of the sound
produced.

Transmission of sound

 Sound needs a medium for it to be transmitted.


 An experiment can be setup to show that sound cannot be transmitted in
a vacuum.
 Fig. 9.2.4 shows the setup to investigate if sound can travel in a vacuum.
Fig 9.2.4: Ringing a bell in a vacuum

How does the experiment work?

 The experiment is done by placing an electrical bell in the bell jar as


shown in Fig. 9.2.4.
 As the air is pumped out of the sealed bell jar, the sound from the bell jar
fades.
 After a particular time, no more sound is heard from the bell, but it can
see that the hammer continues hitting the gong and sound is produced.
However, the sound is not audible to the ears because of the vacuum
inside the jar.
 This demonstrates that the sound wave cannot travel through vacuum.
That is, a sound wave needs a material medium for its propagation.
Determining the speed of sound in air.

Fig. 9.2.5: Setup for measuring the speed of sound in air.

Procedure:

 Set up the experiment as shown in Fig. 9.2.5 above.


 Using a tape measure, record the distance between the two
microphones.
 Strike the metal plate with the hammer.
 Record the time displayed by the digital timer and reset it for another
reading.
 Repeat the experiment several times and calculate the average time
found.
 Speed = distance/time

Characteristics of sound waves.

 Musical notes are rhythmic and their wave patterns are regularly
repeated.
 Noise consists of sound waves that do not have a repeated pattern and
randomly changing frequency.

A musical note has three characteristics.

Pitch, Loudness and Quality (ortimbre)

1 Pitch
 Pitch is how high or low a note that is being played by a musical
instrument or sung is.
 The pitch of a note depends on the frequency of the sound wave.
 A high frequency wave produces a high pitched note and a low
frequency wave produces a low pitched note.

2 Loudness

 Loudness depends on the amplitude of the sound wave.


 The larger the amplitude of a wave the more energy the sound wave
contains hence, the louder the sound.

3 Quality

 This is used to describe the quality of the waveform as it appears to


the listener. Therefore the quality of a note depends upon the
waveform.
 In most cases, a musical note consists of several different
frequencies blend together.
The strongest audible frequency is the fundamental frequency and
the others are the overtones and these overtones determine the
quality of the sound.

 To demonstrate the three characteristics of musical notes, Fig. 9.2.6


can be setup.
 Varying the length of the ruler will produce different sound notes that
vary in pitch, loudness and quality.
Fig. 9.2.6: Investigating the pitch, loudness and quality of sound
produced from a vibrating ruler.

Echoes

 Sound waves are reflected by hard surfaces such as walls.


 An echo is the reflected sound.
 The speed of sound can be calculated by making use of echoes.

speed of sound =2× distance ¿ wall ¿


echo time

Where echo time is the time you hear an echo after the original sound.

Applications of echoes.

1. Parking sensors:

 They are used to detect close objects when parking a motor vehicle.
Fig. 9.2.7: Ultra-sonic waves from car to detect objects by bouncing
the waves of the object detected.

2. Radar:

 They use microwaves instead of sound waves but make use of the
echo-sounding principle.
 Radar detect the positions of ships or aircraft by measuring the
echo times of the microwaves reflected back by the target object.

Fig. 9.2.8: Aircraft using radar to detect position of ship.

3. Echo-sounder:

 They are used to measure the depth of oceans and seas by sending
sound waves towards the bottom of the sea or the ocean.
 The longer the echo time the deeper the sea or the ocean.
Fig. 9.2.10: Ship using echo sounder to locate submarine.

Using echo to measure speed of sound.

 Stand 150 m away from a brick wall.


 Make a loud sound using a starter gun or striking 2 wooden blocks
together.
 As soon as you fire or beat the wooden blocks start the stop watch.
 Stop the timer as soon as you hear the echo.

Fig. 9.2.11: Measuring speed of sound using echo.

 The speed is obtained by dividing the distance travelled by the sound


(300 m) by the time taken to hear the echo.

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