Sound 05/02/2006
UCSD: Physics 8; 2006
What IS Sound?
• Sound is really tiny fluctuations of air pressure
– units of pressure: N/m 2 or psi (lbs/square-inch)
• Carried through air at 345 m/s (770 m.p.h) as
compressions and rarefactions in air pressure
wavelength
compressed gas
Sound
The Nature of Sound
Ears and Speakers
rarefied gas
Spring 2006 2
UCSD: Physics 8; 2006 UCSD: Physics 8; 2006
Properties of Waves
Longitudinal vs.
vs. Transverse Waves
or T
• Sound is a longitudinal wave, meaning that the
pressure
motion of particles is along the direction of
horizontal axis could be: propagation
space: representing
snapshot in time
• Transverse waves—
waves—water waves, light—light—have things
time: representing moving perpendicular to the direction of propagation
sequence at a par-
• Wavelength (
() is measured from crest-to-crest ticular point in space
– or trough-to-trough, or upswing to upswing, etc.
• For traveling waves (sound, light, water), there is a speed (c)
• Frequency (f(f) refers to how many cycles pass by per second
– measured in Hertz, or Hz: cycles per second
– associated with this is period: T = 1/f
• These three are closely related:
f = c
Spring 2006 3 Spring 2006 4
Lecture 10 1
Sound 05/02/2006
UCSD: Physics 8; 2006 UCSD: Physics 8; 2006
Why is Sound Longitudinal? Sound Wave Interference and Beats
• When two sound waves are present, the
• Waves in air can’
can’t really be transverse, because the superposition leads to interference
atoms/molecules are not bound to each other – by this, we mean constructive and destructive addition
– can’t pull a (momentarily) neighboring molecule sideways
– only if a “rubber band” connected the molecules would this • Two similar frequencies produce beats
work – spend a little while in phase, and a little while out of phase
– fancy way of saying this: gases can’t support shear loads – result is “beating” of sound amplitude
• Air molecules can really only bump into one another
• Imagine people in a crowded train station with hands in phase: add signal A
in pockets
– pushing into crowd would send a wave of compression into signal B
the crowd in the direction of push (longitudinal)
– jerking people back and forth (sideways, over several out of phase: cancel
meters) would not propagate into the crowd A + B beat
– but if everyone held hands (bonds), this transverse motion (interference)
would propagate into crowd
Spring 2006 5 Spring 2006 6
UCSD: Physics 8; 2006 UCSD: Physics 8; 2006
Speed of Sound Example Sound Speeds
• Sound speed in air is related to the frantic motions of Medium sound speed (m/s)
molecules as they jostle and collide
air (20°C) 343
– since air has a lot of empty space, the communication that a
wave is coming through has to be carried by the motion of water 1497
particles gold 3240
– for air, this motion is about 500 m/s, but only about 350 m/s brick 3650
directed in any particular direction
wood 3800–4600
• Solids have faster sound speeds because atoms are glass 5100
hooked up by “springs”
springs” (bonds
(bonds)) steel 5790
– don’t have to rely on atoms to traverse gap
aluminum 6420
– spring compression can (and does) travel faster than actual
atom motion
Spring 2006 7 Spring 2006 http://hypertextbook.com/physics/waves/sound/ 8
Lecture 10 2
Sound 05/02/2006
UCSD: Physics 8; 2006 UCSD: Physics 8; 2006
Sound Intensity Sound hitting your eardrum
• Sound requires energy (pushing atoms/molecules • Pressure variations displace membrane (eardrum,
through a distance), and therefore a power microphone) which can be used to measure sound
• Sound is characterized in decibels (dB), according to: – my speaking voice is moving your eardrum by a mere 1.5
– sound level = 10log(I/I0) = 20log(P/P 0) dB 10-4 mm = 150 nm = 1/4 wavelength of visible light!
– I0 = 1012 W/m2 is the threshold power intensity (0 dB) – threshold of hearing detects 510-8 mm motion, one-half the
– P0 = 2105 N/m2 is the threshold pressure (0 dB) diameter of a single atom!!!
• atmospheric pressure is about 105 N/m2 – pain threshold corresponds to 0.05 mm displacement
• Examples: • Ear ignores changes slower than 20 Hz
– 60 dB (conversation) means log(I/I0) = 6, so I = 106 W/m2 – so though pressure changes even as you climb stairs, it is
• and log(P/P 0) = 3, so P = 2102 N/m2 = 0.0000002 atmosphere!!
too slow to perceive as sound
– 120 dB (pain threshold) means log (I/I0) = 12, so I = 1 W/m2
• and log(P/P 0) = 6, so P = 20 N/m2 = 0.0002 atmosphere • Eardrum can’
can’t be wiggled faster than about 20 kHz
– 10 dB (barely detectable) means log(I/I0) = 1, so I = 1011 W/m2 – just like trying to wiggle resonant system too fast produces
• and log(P/P 0) = 0.5, so P 6105 N/m2 no significant motion
Spring 2006 9 Spring 2006 10
UCSD: Physics 8; 2006 UCSD: Physics 8; 2006
Localization of Sound
Sensitivity of the Human Ear
• At low frequencies (< 1000 Hz), detect phase
difference
• We can hear sounds with frequencies ranging from
– wave crest hits one ear before the other
20 Hz to 20,000 Hz
– “shadowing” not very effective because of diffraction
– an impressive range of three decades (logarithmically)
• At high frequencies (> 4000 Hz), use relative intensity
– about 10 octaves (factors of two)
in both ears
– compare this to vision, with less than one octave! – one ear is in sound shadow
– even with one ear, can tell front vs. back at high freq.
Spring 2006 11 Spring 2006 12
Lecture 10 3
Sound 05/02/2006
UCSD: Physics 8; 2006 UCSD: Physics 8; 2006
Speakers: Inverse Eardrums Speaker Geometry
• Speakers vibrate and push on the air
– pushing out creates compression
– pulling back creates rarefaction
• Speaker must execute complex motion according to
desired waveform
• Speaker is driven via “solenoid”
solenoid” idea:
– electrical signal (AC) is sent into coil that surrounds a
permanent magnet attached to speaker cone
– depending on direction of current, the induced magnetic field
either lines up with magnet or is opposite
– results in pushing or pulling (attracting/repelling) magnet in
coil, and thus pushing/pulling on center of cone
Spring 2006 13 Spring 2006 14
UCSD: Physics 8; 2006
Push Me, Pull Me
• When the center of the speaker cone is kicked, the whole cone
can’
can’t respond instantaneously
– the fastest any mechanical signal can travel through a material is at
the speed of sound in the material
• The whole cone must move into place well before the wave
period is complete
– otherwise, different parts of the cone might be moving in while
others are moving out (thus canceling the sound)
– if we require the signal to travel from the center to the edge of the The Look of Sound
cone in 1/N of a wave cycle (N is some large-ish number):
• available time is t = 1/Nf = /Ncair Sound Waveforms
• ripple in cone travels c conet, so radius of cone must be < ccone/Ncair
Frequency Content
– basic point is that speaker size is related to wavelength of sound
• low frequency speakers are big, high frequency small Digital Sampling
Spring 2006 15
Lecture 10 4
Sound 05/02/2006
UCSD: Physics 8; 2006 UCSD: Physics 8; 2006
All Shapes of Waveforms How does our ear know?
• Different Instruments have • Our ears pick out frequency
different waveforms components of a waveform
– a: glockenspiel • A DC (constant) signal has
– b: soft piano no wiggles, thus is at zero
– c: loud piano frequency
– d: trumpet • A sinusoidal wave has a
• Our ears are sensitive to the single frequency associated
detailed shape of waveforms! with it
• More waveforms: • The faster the wiggles, the
– e: french horn higher the frequency
– f: clarinet • The height of the spike
– g: violin indicates how strong
(amplitude) that frequency
component is
http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/AudioMisc/asymmetry/asym.html
Spring 2006 17 Spring 2006 18
UCSD: Physics 8; 2006 UCSD: Physics 8; 2006
Composite Waveforms
Decomposing a Square Wave
• A single sine wave has only one
frequency represented in the
“power spectrum”
spectrum”
• Adding a “ second harmonic”
harmonic” at
twice the frequency makes a
more complex waveform
• Throwing in the fourth harmonic,
the waveform is even more
sophisticated
• A square wave is composed of • Adding the sequence:
odd multiples of the fundamental sin(x) + 1/3sin(3x) + 1/5sin(5x) +
frequency 1/7sin(7x) + …
– leads to a square wave
– Fourier components are at odd
frequency multiples with
decreasing amplitude
Spring 2006 19 Spring 2006 20
Lecture 10 5
Sound 05/02/2006
UCSD: Physics 8; 2006 UCSD: Physics 8; 2006
The ear assesses frequency content Assignments
• Read pp. 404–
404–406, 489–
489–492
• Midterm 05/04 (Thu.) 2PM WLH 2005
– have posted study guide on course website
– will have review session Wednesday 7:00–8:50, Center 113
– Use light-green Scantron: Form No.: X-101864
– Bring #2 pencil, calculators okay
• Different waveforms look different in frequency space
• The sounds with more high-frequency content will sound raspier
• The exact mixture of frequency content is how we distinguish
voices from one another
– effectively, everyone has their own waveform
– and corresponding spectrum
– though an “A” may sound vastly similar, we’re sensitive to very
subtle variations
Spring 2006 21 Spring 2006 22
Lecture 10 6
