 SOUND

 PRODUCTION OF SOUND
 HOW DOES SOUND TRAVEL?
 COMPRESSION & RAREFACTION
 SOUND WAVES ARE LONGITUDINAL WAVES
 CHARACTERISTICS OF SOUND WAVE
 REFLECTION OF SOUND
 RANGE OF HEARING
 APPLICATION OF ULTRASOUND
 HUMAN EAR
 Sound is a form of energy which produces a
sensation of hearing in our ears.
 It travels in form of waves.
 Law of conservation of energy is also
applicable to sound.
 Sound is produced due to the vibration of
objects.
 Vibration is a periodic back-and-forth motion
of the particles of an elastic body or medium
kind about a central position. It is also named
as oscillation.
 Eg:- i)Stretched strings of a guitar vibrate to
produce sound.
ii) the sound of human voice is produced
due to vibration in the vocal chords.
 The travelling of sound is called propagation of
sound.
 Sound is propagated by the to and fro motion of
particles of the medium.
 When an object vibrates, the particles around the
medium vibrate.
 The particle in contact with the vibrating object is
first displaced from its equilibrium position.
 Each particle disturbs the other particle in contact.
Thus, the disturbance is carried from the source to
the listener.
 Only the disturbance produced by the vibrating body
travels through the medium but the particles do not
move forward themselves.
 The high-pressure region, created by a vibrating
object as it moves forward, and pushes and
compresses the air in front of it is called
compression.
 This compression starts to move away from the
vibrating objects.
 Compressions are represented by the upper
portion of the curve called crest.
 When vibrating objects moves backward, it
creates a region of low pressure called
rarefactions.
 Rarefactions are represented by the lower portion
of the curve called trough.
 Wave is a phenomenon or disturbance in which energy is transferred
from one point to another without any direct contact between them. For
example: Heat, light and sound is considered as a wave.
 Mechanical waves : A mechanical wave is a periodic disturbance which
requires a material medium for its propagation. On the basis of motion
of particles the mechanical waves are classified into two parts.
(a) Transverse wave
(b) Longitudinal wave
Longitudinal waves are the waves in which the particles of the medium
vibrate along the direction of propagation of the wave. For example:
sound wave.
Transverse waves: In this type of wave the particles of the medium
vibrate in a direction perpendicular to the direction of propagation of the
wave. For example: waves produced in a stretched string.
 Another type of waves which do not require any medium for propagation
are called electromagnetic waves. These waves can travel through
vacuum also. For example, light waves, X-rays.
 Sound waves have following characteristics:
(1) Amplitude
(2) wavelength
(3) Frequency
(4) Time period
(5)Velocity
 The distance between two nearest (adjacent)
crests or troughs of a wave is called its
wavelength.
 It is denoted by the Greek letter lamda (λ).
 Its SI unit is metre.
 The number of vibrations per second is called
frequency.
 The SI unit of frequency is hertz (Hz).
 The symbol of frequency is ν (nu).
 The time taken to complete one vibration is
called time period.
 It is denoted by T.
 Its SI unit is second (s).
 The frequency of a wave is the reciprocal of
the time period.
 i.e., v = 1/T
 The distance travelled by a wave in one
second is called velocity of the wave or speed
of the wave.
 Its S.I. unit is metres per second (m/s).
 Velocity = Distance travelled/Time taken
 ⟹ v = λ/T , where λ = wavelength of the
wave travelled in one time time period T)
 ⟹ v = λv (As 1/T = v)
 Thus, Velocity = Wavelength × Frequency
 v = λv is called the wave equation.
 The maximum displacement of each particle
from its mean position is called amplitude.
 It is denoted by A.
 Its SI unit is metre (m).
 Music: It is the sound that is pleasant to hear.
For example: Sound coming out of musical
instruments.
Noise: It is the sound that is unpleasant to
hear. For example: Sound produced by
vehicles
 Tone: A pure sound of single frequency is
called tone.
Note: An impure sound produced by mixture
of many frequencies is called a note. For
example: A musical note has tones of various
frequencies.
 When sound waves strike a surface, they
return back into the same medium. This
phenomenon is called reflection.
 Laws of reflection
There are two basic laws of reflection of
sound:
(i) Angle of incidence is equal the angle of
reflection.
(ii) The incident wave, the reflected wave and
the normal all lie in the same plane.
 Phenomenon of hearing back our own sound
is called an echo. It is due to successive
reflection from the surfaces obstacles of large
size.
 Conditions for the formation of Echoes
(i) The minimum distance between the
source of sound and the reflecting body
should be 17.2 metres.
(ii) The wavelength of sound should be
less than the height of the reflecting body.
(iii) The intensity of sound should be
sufficient so that it can be heard after
reflection.
 Persistence of sound after its production is
stopped, is called reverberation.
 A short reverberation is desirable in a concert
hall (where music is being played) because it
gives ‘life’ to sound.
 Too much reverberation confuses the
programmers and must be reduced to reduce
reverberation.
Use of multiple Reflection of
Sound
Many instruments work on the basis of multiple
reflections of sound:
 Megaphone, loudspeakers, bulb horns, musical
instruments like trumpets, shehnais etc. are
designed to send sound by multiple reflections in a
particular direction due to which the amplitude of
sound waves adds up to increase loudness of sound.
 Stethoscope which is used by doctors to listen to the
sounds from the human body, also works on principle
of multiple reflections of sound. Here, sound of
heartbeat reaches the doctor's ears by multiple
reflections.
 In big halls or auditoriums sound is absorbed by
walls, ceiling, seats, etc. So a curved board (sound
board) is placed behind the speaker. Then the voice
of speaker suffers multiple reflections to increase its
loudness so that his speech can be heard easily by
audiences.
 The audible range of sound for human
beings extends from about 20 Hz to 20,000
Hz (one Hz = one cycle/s).
 Sounds of frequencies below 20 Hz are called
infrasonic sound or infrasound. Rhinoceroses
communicate using infrasound of frequency
as low as 5Hz.
 Frequencies higher than 20 kHz are called
ultrasonic sound or ultra sound. Ultrasound is
produced by dolphins, bats and porpoises.
 It is a battery operated electronic device used
by the people who are hard of hearing.
 It receives sound through a microphone.
 Microphone converts the sound waves to
electrical signals.
 This signals are amplified by an amplifier.
 The amplified electrical signals are given to a
speaker of the hearing aid.
 The speaker converts amplified electrical
signals to sound and sends to the ear for
clear hearing.
 The ultrasound is commonly used for medical
diagnosis and therapy, and also as a surgical
tool.
 It is also used in a wide variety of industrial
applications and processes.
 Some creatures use ultrasound for information
exchange and for the detection and location of
objects.
 Also some bats and porpoises are found to use
ultrasound for navigation and to locate food in
darkness or at a place where there is inadequate
light for vision (method of search is called
echolocation).
 The word Sonar stands for “ SOund Navigation
And Ranging”.
 It is device which is used to find distance,
direction and speed of underwater objects.
 It consist of a transmitter and a detector and
installed at the bottom of the ship.
 The transmitter produces and transmits
ultrasonic waves.
 These waves travel through water and after
striking the object on the sea belt, get reflected
back and are sensed by the detector.
 These reflected waves are converted into
electrical signals by detector.
 It is a highly sensitive part of the human body which enables us to hear a
sound. It converts the pressure variations in air with audiable frequencies
into electric signals which travel to the brain via the auditory nerve.
 The human ear has three main parts. Their auditory functions are as follows:
(i) Outer ear : The outer ear is called `pinna’. It collects the sound from the
surrounding. The collected sound passes through the auditory canal. At the
end of the auditory canal there is a thin membrane called the ear drum or
tympanic membrane. When compression of the medium produced due to
vibration of the object reaches the ear drum, the pressure on the outside of
the membrane increases and forces the eardrum inward. Similarly, the
eardrum moves outward when a rarefaction reaches. In this way the ear drum
vibrates.
(ii) Middle ear: The vibrations are amplified several times by three bones (the
hammer, anvil and stirrup) in the middle ear which act as levers. The middle
ear transmits the amplified pressure variations received from the sound wave
to the inner ear.
(iii) Inner ear: In the inner ear, the pressure variations are turned into
electrical signals by the cochlea. These electrical signals are sent to the brain
via the auditory nerve, and the brain interprets them as sound.
 The external ear catches sound waves and channelizes
them to the ear drum, via the ear canal.
 During compression, the pressure increases outside the
ear drum which forces the eardrum to move inwards.
 During rarefaction, the pressure decreases outside the ear
drum which forces the eardrum to move outwards.
 Thus, a vibration is produced in the eardrum. Further, the
three bones amplify the sound wave, by vibrating in turns.
 In the inner ear, the vibrations are converted into electrical
signals.
 These signals are transmitted by the auditory nerve to the
brain.
 Finally, the brain interprets those signals as sound.