Properties Of Sounds

Sound has a huge impact on our day to day lives. Just think of how much of our technology involves sending or receiving sounds in various forms.

Most people don’t fully understand what sound is.

In this section we will be looking at the basic properties of sound.

Sound is a longitudinal wave.

Remember that longitudinal waves are made up of areas where the wave is compressed together, and other areas where it is expanded.

This would agree with the way that humans themselves make sounds. We force air, sometimes harder, sometimes softer, through our vocal cords.

In the process the air is either squished or allowed to move freely… making the air into a longitudinal wave!

We will look in detail at three fundamental characteristics of sound: speed,frequency, and loudness.

Speed

The speed of sound in air actually depends on the temperature of the air.

As a standard, we will say that the speed of sound is 340m/s at 15°C. If you are not told anything different in a question, use this value.

If you did need to calculate the speed of sound at a different temperature, you could use this formula as a rough estimate (you are not required to memorize this formula)…

v = 331.5m/s + 0.6T

v = velocity of sound (m/s)

T = temperature

These are the properties of sounds that it explains so much of it and how it gives more information about sound waves!