Notes Unit 1 Phy
Notes Unit 1 Phy
Acoustics
Introduction: The science concerned with the production, control, transmission, reception,
and effects of sound.
The branch of the science which deals with the planning of a building or a hall with a view
to provide best audible sound to the audience is called Acoustics of a building or
architectural acoustics.
Many fascinating phenomena, such as echo and reverberation, are caused by sound
reflection. The reflection of sound, like the reflection of light, obeys laws. When a sound hits
a hard surface, it bounces back to its source.
Reflection of Sound: Sound waves occur when there is a mechanical disturbance created in
a stabilized condition. This disturbance grows across an elastic medium, creating sound. It is
nothing but energy created by air vibrations. Sound waves can travel through gasses, liquids,
and solids before reaching our ears.
While traveling, sound waves can meet some hindrances. These hindrances are the main
reason for the reflection of sound. Usually, when a sound wave encounters a hard surface,
its direction changes, and it goes back to the same medium. This is known as the reflection
of sound.
Just as light reflects off surfaces, sound also reflects when it encounters an obstacle. The
reflection of sound plays an important role in how we perceive and navigate our acoustic
environment. Let’s take the example of an empty room. Since the room is used to be
completely empty, there is a repetition of our sound within the room. We call this
phenomenon as Echo. This phenomenon is due to the reflection of sound. The concept of
reflection of sound is similar to that of reflection of light.
The reflection of Sound led to various of interesting and useful phenomena such as echo,
reverberations, diffraction, etc. that led to invention of numerous of devices like
Stethoscope, Megaphone, Hearing, aids, etc.
What is Reflection of Sound?
Reflection of sound can be defined as the bouncing back of sound waves after striking the
surface and within the same media. This medium can be either solid or liquid. Similar to
light, sound also follows the same laws of reflection.
It gives rise to phenomena like echo, reverberations, and diffraction. It takes place both on
the plane as well as on rough surfaces (that we term symmetric or asymmetric reflection)
depending upon the reflecting power of the surfaces that are categorized using the
absorption coefÏcient or the coefÏcient of reflection. Concave surfaces concentrate sound
waves by focusing on a specific area whereas convex surfaces scatter the waves promoting
a good level of diffusion.
Applications of Reflection of Sound
Following are the applications of sound reflection.
Echo
An echo is a repeated sound or series of sounds caused due to reflection of sound from a
smooth or hard surface back to the listener. The reflected echo sound is usually heard more
than once because the time difference lies in the initial productions of the sound waves and
their return from the reflecting surface.
Soundboard
A soundboard is actually a curved board, usually, a concave board, placed behind speakers
in large auditoriums or seminar halls such that a person sitÝng at a considerable distance
can get the speech easily and clearly without any interference and even with enhanced
quality. It works on the principle of reflection of sound and reflects back the sound of the
speaker towards the audience. Thus, prevents the sounds from spreading in various
directions.
Hearing aid
Hearing aids are electronic devices used by people with hearing issues. It functions on the
principle of laws of reflection of sound waves. It reflects the received sound wave to the
narrow portions leading to the ears and thus help the people having difÏculty in hearing.
Megaphones
Megaphone is a funnel-shaped instrument that helps in amplifying sound by channelling
your sound and focusing it toward the target. It works on the principle of multiple reflections
of sound waves. When sound is produced in a megaphone, because of its funnel-shaped
structure the sound waves have to be reflected multiple times while traveling to the opening
of the funnel. With every reflection the sound gets amplified as a result it leads to an overall
increase in input volume.
Stethoscope
Stethoscope is a medical instrument used to hear the sound of internal organs of the body.
It is a working mechanism based on the principle of multiple reflections of sound. A
stethoscope has an air-filled tube with a circular shaped object attached at its one end called
as Diaphragm. At the point when this diaphragm is put on the chest of a patient, it vibrates
because of weak sound coming from the organ, these vibrations are channelised through
the air-filled tube and enhanced by multiple reflections by the inward walls of the tubes
resulting in hearing of amplified sound which helps the doctors in the analysis of sound and
the condition of the organs.
FAQS
Q1. Is an echo a reflection of sound?
Reflection of sound occurs when sound waves hit a firm surface and change their direction
to bounce back at the source.
Yes, an echo is a repeating sound caused by waves reverbing from the surface. The
reflection of sound occurs due to a difference in time between the initial sound produced
and the waves returning from the reflecting surface. Thus, a reflection of sound is received
by the person who produced it after a delay.
The technique of echo is used by bats, which produce echolocation. They do this by
emitÝng high-frequency sounds through their nose and mouth. It helps them locate their
prey, objects, and things of different sizes and shapes, even during the dark.
The SONAR System (Sound Navigation and Ranging) is used to locate objects under the
water by way of sound reflection. This is the reason sailors develop nautical charts to spot
transit hazards underwater or shipwrecks. Initially, during World War- I, SONAR was used
by sailors to determine the location of icebergs in the sea.
Multiple reflections of sound in the form of SONAR echo are well seen in the medical field,
where a patient’s heartbeat and illness can be heard and identified by the doctor through a
stethoscope.
Recent trends in SONAR are fish finding, mine spotÝng, tracking the sea bottom, and
diving, which are to be further evolved & explored in the years to come.
Reverberation: Reverberation is the persistence of sound after it has been stopped due to
multiple reflections from surfaces such as furniture, people, air, etc., within a closed surface.
These reflections build up with each reflection and decay gradually as they are absorbed by
the surfaces of objects in the enclosed space.
Absorption of Sound: The parameter that best describes the sound absorption of materials
is the absorption coefÏcient α. It is defined as the ratio of the sound energy absorbed by a
surface to the sound energy incident on that surface, taking values between 0 and 1. The
sound absorption coefÏcient depends on the angle of incidence.
Absorption CoefÏcient: The coefÏcient of absorption of a material is defined as the ratio
of the sound energy absorbed by the surface to that of total incident sound energy on the
surface.
𝑺𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅 𝑬𝒏𝒆𝒓𝒈𝒚 𝒂𝒃𝒔𝒐𝒓𝒃𝒆𝒅 𝒃𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒖𝒓𝒇𝒂𝒄𝒆
Absorption CoefÏcient (α) =
𝑻𝒐𝒕𝒂𝒍 𝒔𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅 𝒆𝒏𝒆𝒓𝒈𝒚 𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒖𝒓𝒇𝒂𝒄𝒆
OR
The absorption coefÏcient of a material is defined as the rate of the sound energy absorbed
by a certain area of the surface to that of an open window of the same area.
Sabine’s formula : According to Sabine’s law, the reverberation time T in second ( the time
taken by the intensity of sound to fall to one millionth 10-6 of its original value after the
source of sound in cut off) is expressed as
0.165𝑉
T= ∑ 𝑎𝑆
∑ 𝑎𝑠 = 𝑎1 𝑆1 + 𝑎2 𝑆2 + ⋯ + 𝑎𝑛 𝑆𝑛
Here a1 ,a2 ,a3 … an are the absorption coefÏcients of the materials in the hall whose surfaces
exposed to sound are S1 , S2 ,S3 ….. Sn respectively measured in m2. The derivation of the
above formula due to Jaeger’s is as follows:
The average value of absorption coefÏcient ā is given by
𝑎1 𝑆1 +𝑎2 𝑆2 +⋯+𝑎𝑛 𝑆𝑛 ∑ 𝑎𝑠
ā= =
𝑆1 +𝑆2 +⋯+𝑆𝑛 𝑆
or ∑ 𝑎𝑆 = ā𝑆 (1)
4𝑉
By statistical method Jaeger showed that sound travels on an average a distance ( )
𝑆
between two successive reflections. This is known as mean free path. Hence V is the volume
of the room and S is the total surface area of all surfaces exposed to that sound in the room.
4𝑉
Time taken by two successive reflections= where v=velocity of sound
𝑆𝑣
𝑆𝑣𝑡
The average number of reflections in time is
4𝑉
Let ā be the fraction of sound absorbed at a single reflection. Then fraction of sound reflected
be
𝑆𝑣𝑡
(1-ā). After two reflections the fraction of sound reflected is (1-ā)2 . Similarly after time ,
4𝑉
the fraction of sound sound reflected be
(1-ā)( Svt/4V)
If I0 be the initial intensity of sound and It be the intensity of sound after time t then
It=I0 (1-ā) ( Svt/4V) (2)
When t=T ( Reverberation time) then
𝐼𝑡
= 10−6
𝐼0
Substituting these values in equation (2) we get
𝐼𝑡
= 10−6 = (1 − ā)( SvT/4V) (3)
𝐼0
4𝑉
Or T=2.3026 log10 10−6 ⌊ ⌋
𝑆𝑣 log𝑒 (1−ā)
2.3026×(−6)×4𝑉
= (where v=330 m/sec)
𝑆×330×log𝑒 (1−ā)
−55.26𝑉
=
330×𝑆×log𝑒 (1−ā)
0.165 𝑉 0.165 𝑉
=− = (4)
𝑆(−ā) 𝑆ā
log 𝑒 (1 − ā) = −ā
Substituting the value of āS from equation (1) we have as ā𝑆 = ∑ 𝑎𝑆
Hence equation (4) becomes
𝟎.𝟏𝟔𝟓 𝑽
T= ∑ 𝒂𝑺
1. Reverberation time: If the reverberation time is very small, the sound intensity
decreases very fast and makes the sound appear dead. On the other hand, a large
reverberation time causes mixing of different syllables and hence causes confusion.
3.Echo: The reflection of sound from a distant reflecting surface is known as echo. If the
echo reaches the listener about 1/15 th of a second after the direct sound, the
listener hears two sounds instead of one which causes confusion. Such echoes
mush be eliminated in halls.
Remedy: High ceilings and distant walls are covered with second absorbing materials.
5.Focusing: Concave and parabolic surfaces in the hall focus sound. This causes
concentration of sound in certain regions of the hall which is not desirable.
Remedies: Curved surfaces are avoided, If there are curved surfaces, they are covered with
sound absorbing materials.
6.Resonance: Loose fitÝng window panels and some other objects resonate at some
audible frequencies creating more sound of these frequencies. This distorts the
original sound.
Remedies: Window panels are fixed properly; Vibrating objects are placed on sound
absorbing materials.
7. Noise: Noise from different sources adversely affects the quality of sound in a hall. The
noise can be air borne, structure borne or inside noise.
a) Air borne noise: the external noise, for example of trafÏc, which enters the halls through
doors, windows and ventilators is known as external noise.
Remedies: i) Openings for ventilators inside the hall are avoided. ii)Doors and windows are
provided with rubber covering on frames so that they shut without any gaps. iii)Double
doors and windows having separate frames enclosing sound absorbing materials are used.
b) Structure borne noise: Noise produced by activities like drilling and hammering or the
vibrations of heavy machinery is transmitted through the structure of the building. This
is known as structure borne noise.
Remedies: i) Heavy machinery is mounted on sound absorbing materials like wood or
rubber.
ii)Double walls are used with space between them.
c)Inside noise: It is the noise produced inside the hall by machinery, fans, air conditioners
etc.
Remedies: i)Sound absorbing materials and curtains are provided near the sources of
noise.
ii)The sources of noise are mounted on sound absorbing materials.
Ultrasonic Waves
Definition: The sound waves having frequency greater than 20KHz (above Audible
range) are known as ultrasonic waves.
Dogs, bats and dolphins can listen ultrasonic waves and they can also generate
ultrasonic waves and bats use the reflection of the waves to find their way.
Properties:
1. They are highly energetic.
2. They having very high frequency.
3. They having very low wavelength.
4. They can be transmitted over large distances with no appreciable loss of
energy.
5. The speed of propagation of ultrasonic waves increases with increase in
frequency.
6. Due to their small wavelength, they show negligible diffraction.
7. They can produce stationary waves in a liquid bath when reflection of waves
takes place.
8. The density of liquid layers varies along the direction of propagation of
ultrasonic waves.
Infrasonic wave: The sound waves having frequency less than 20Hz (below Audible
range) are known as infrasonic waves.
Whales, Elephants, Giraffes, rhinos and hippos can listen infrasonic waves
Audible waves/Sound: The sound waves having frequency between 20Hz to 20KHz
are known as Audible waves.
Diagram :
𝑘 𝑌
𝑛= √
2𝑙 𝜌
Piezoelectric Effect :
The proper grid bias is obtained by means of grid leak registor Rg and grid
condenser Cg. The d.c. volatage is applied to the plate through radio frequency
choke. The radio frequency choke prevents the radio frequency current to pass
through high tension battery. Cb is the blocking capacitor which prevents the
direct current to pass through the tank circuit which bypasses the radio
frequency current . The capacity of variable condenser C1 is adjusted so that
the frequency of the oscillating circuit is tuned to the natural frequency of the
crystal. Now the quartz crystal is set into mechanical vibrations and ultrasonic
waves are produced. The ultrasonic waves upto a frequency of 500 KHz with a
moderate size crystal can be produced by this metod. However frequency upto
15 ×10 7 Hz can be produced by Tourmaline crystal.
𝒗𝒕
d=
𝟐
Dielectrics are materials that don't allow current to flow. They are
more often called insulators because they are the exact opposite of
conductors. There are no free charge carriers in a dielectric. When
dielectric materials are placed in an electric field. They modify the
electric field and they themselves undergo appreciable changes
because of which they act as stores of electric charges .When charge
storage is the main function ,the materials are called dielectrics.
Polar & Non Polar Dielectrics:
Polar dielectrics: Polar dielectrics are those in which the possibility of
center coinciding of the positive as well as negative charge is almost
zero i.e. they don’t coincide with each other. The reason behind this is
their shape. They all are of asymmetric in shape. Some of the examples
of the polar dielectrics are NH3,HCl, water etc.
Non-polar dielectrics: In the case of non-polar dielectrics the centres
of both positive, as well as negative charges, coincide. Dipole moment
of each molecule in non polar system is zero. All those molecules
which belong to this category are symmetric in nature. Examples of
non polar dielectrics are: methane, benzene etc.
Dielectrics are broadly divided into two major groups polar and non
polar dielectrics based on dipole moment.
A molecule is a neutral system in which the algebric sum of all the
charges is equal to zero.However the spatial arrangement of charges
in a molecule may differ from material to material. All positive charges
of a molecule may be replaced by one equivalent positive charge
located at the center of gravity of all negative charges. The two
resultant charges are equal in magnitude. Their points of action in
space may coincide or may not coincide . When the points of action
coincide ,the molecule will not possess a permanent dipole moment.
Such molecules are called nonpolar molecules and the materials are
known as non polar dielectric. Their permitÝvities are low and range
from 1 to 2.2
𝑘 𝑌 𝑘 𝑌
2) 𝜂 = √ or 𝜂= √
2𝑙 𝜌 2𝑡 𝜌
𝑣𝑡
3) 𝑑= 2
4) Calculate the length of iron rod which can be used to produce ultrasonic
waves of 20 KHZ. Density of iron is 7.23 X 10^ 3 kg/m^3 ,Young’s
modulus is 11.6 X 10^10 N/m^2
𝑘 𝑌
𝜂= √
2𝑙 𝜌
𝑘 𝑌
𝑙= √
2𝜂 𝜌
1 11.6×1010
= 2×20×103 √ 7.23 ×103 = 0.1001 m
I= 0.1001 m
𝑘 𝑌
𝜂= √
2𝑙 𝜌
1 115 × 109
= √
2 × 40 × 10−3 7.25 × 103
=49784.01 Hz
𝑘 𝑌
t= √
2𝜂 𝜌
1 8 × 1010
= √
2 × 2 × 106 2.65 × 103
t=1.37 mm
t = 1.37 × 10−3 m
𝑘 𝑌
𝜂= √
2𝑡 𝜌
1 8 × 1010
= √
2 × 1 × 10−3 2650
= 2747211.27 Hz
η=2.7472MHz η=2.7472MHz
𝑘 𝑌
𝜂= √
2𝑙 𝜌
𝑘 𝑌
l= √
2𝜂 𝜌
1 2.14 × 1011
= √
2 × 100 × 103 8908
𝐥 = 𝟎. 𝟎𝟐𝟒𝟓𝟎 𝐦
𝑘 𝑌
𝜂= √
2𝑙 𝜌
1 8 × 1010
= √
2 × 3 × 10−3 2500
𝜂 = 942809.04 𝐻𝑧
𝜂 = 0.942 𝑀𝐻𝑧
𝜼 = 𝟎. 𝟗𝟒𝟐 𝑴𝑯𝒛
𝑘 𝑌
𝜂= √
2𝑙 𝜌
𝑘 𝑌
l= √
2𝜂 𝜌
1 20.8 × 1010
= √
2 × 40 × 103 8900
l = 0.06042 m
𝐥 = 𝟎. 𝟎𝟔𝟎𝟒𝟐 𝐦
𝑘 𝑌
𝜂= √
2𝑙 𝜌
𝑘 𝑌
𝜂1 = √
2t1 𝜌
𝑘 𝑌
𝜂2 = √
2t 2 𝜌
η1 t 2
=
𝜂2 t1
t 2 = 3.2 × 10−3 m
t2=3.2 mm
t2=3.2 mm
𝑘 𝑌
𝜂= √
2𝑙 𝜌
1 8 × 1010
= √
2 × 5.5 × 10−3 2650
= 499492.95 𝐻𝑧
𝜂 = 499.49 𝐾𝐻𝑧
𝜼 = 𝟒𝟗𝟗. 𝟒𝟗 𝑲𝑯𝒛
𝑘 𝑌
𝜂= √
2𝑙 𝜌
1 8×1010
= −3
√
2×5.5×10 2650
=909995.738 KHz
𝜂 = 909.995 𝐾𝐻𝑧
f=0.07 X 106Hz
t=0.65 Sec
v=1700 m/sec
𝑣𝑡 1700×0.65
Distance 𝑑= =
2 2
𝑣 1700
To calculate wavelength 𝑣 = 𝑓𝜆 = =
𝑓 0.07×106
Wavelength=0.0243 m Wavelength=0.0243 m
15) Find the echo time of ultrasonic pulse travelling with velocity
5.9X 103 m/sec in a mild steel whose correct thickness displayed
by guage is 18 mm.
𝑣𝑡 2 × 18 × 10−3
𝑑= =
2 5.9 × 103
2×𝑑 2×18×10−3
Echo Time= = = 6.1 × 10−6 𝑆𝑒𝑐
𝑣 5.9×103