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Sound Shadow: Short-Distance Acoustic Shadow

The document discusses acoustic shadows, which are areas behind an object where sound waves are unable to propagate due to being blocked or bent by the object. A short-distance acoustic shadow occurs behind buildings or barriers and results in the sound from a source being shielded and its amplitude reduced. Due to diffraction, the shadow area is not completely silent as some sound waves bend around the object. Nature uses acoustic shadows to make sounds disappear by blocking them with hills, buildings, walls or absorbing them using foliage, snow or other terrain features.

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Kritarth Jaiswal
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265 views1 page

Sound Shadow: Short-Distance Acoustic Shadow

The document discusses acoustic shadows, which are areas behind an object where sound waves are unable to propagate due to being blocked or bent by the object. A short-distance acoustic shadow occurs behind buildings or barriers and results in the sound from a source being shielded and its amplitude reduced. Due to diffraction, the shadow area is not completely silent as some sound waves bend around the object. Nature uses acoustic shadows to make sounds disappear by blocking them with hills, buildings, walls or absorbing them using foliage, snow or other terrain features.

Uploaded by

Kritarth Jaiswal
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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SOUND SHADOW

 
A region immediately behind an object placed in the path of a sound wave whose wavelengt
h is much smaller than the object, in which the initial sound wave is cut off by the object and 
the sound intensity is determined by the diffraction and interference of sound waves bent ar
ound the obstacle.
 an acoustic shadow is an area where sound waves cannot propagate due to physical
obstructions or disruptions which send the waves off course. 
SHORT-DISTANCE ACOUSTIC SHADOW
A short-distance acoustic shadow occurs behind a
building or a sound barrier. The sound from a source is
shielded by the obstruction. Due to diffraction around
the object, it will not be completely silent in the sound
shadow. The amplitude of the sound can be reduced
considerably, however, depending on the additional
distance the sound has to travel between source and
receiver.

We're fooled by Mother Nature all the time. She uses light to conjure up a
mirage on a hot desert day and Aurora Borealis on a cold Alaskan night. She
also has a bag of tricks for sound, like flinging noises a hundred miles away. But
one of her best is when she makes sound disappear. This slight-of-hand by
Mother Nature may have even changed the outcome of several battles in the
American Civil War.
Let's look first at the simplest of these: short distance acoustic shadows.
Behaving similarly to light where visual details are lost in shadows, sound can
disappear into "thin air." A large object like a hill, building, or wall will block
sound. For instance, a lawnmower in the front yard is heard faintly in the back
yard. Sure, some of the sound will bounce off the neighbors' houses, but the
direct sound is mostly blocked. You might faintly hear the lawnmower's direct
sound because some of it wraps around the house to the backyard. This
phenomenon that is found throughout nature is called diffraction. Sounds can
also be absorbed by foliage, snow, and other terrain features.

KRITARTH JAISWAL
B. Arch. 4th year

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