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Questions and Answers
What is the range of frequencies that the human ear can distinguish?
What is the range of frequencies that the human ear can distinguish?
How does sound travel through a medium?
How does sound travel through a medium?
Why is it mentioned that humans are particularly well suited to frequencies near 3,700 Hz?
Why is it mentioned that humans are particularly well suited to frequencies near 3,700 Hz?
How is energy carried by sound waves in a medium?
How is energy carried by sound waves in a medium?
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What analogy can be used to describe how sound waves propagate in a medium?
What analogy can be used to describe how sound waves propagate in a medium?
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What is the relationship between the velocity of an atom and the speed of the wave in the context of a sound wave?
What is the relationship between the velocity of an atom and the speed of the wave in the context of a sound wave?
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What determines the intensity of a sound wave?
What determines the intensity of a sound wave?
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How is the impedance (z) in the context of a sound wave related to the medium?
How is the impedance (z) in the context of a sound wave related to the medium?
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What does Equation (3) P = z ν represent in the context of sound waves?
What does Equation (3) P = z ν represent in the context of sound waves?
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How does compression get transmitted along a slinky or through air molecules?
How does compression get transmitted along a slinky or through air molecules?
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Study Notes
The Human Ear and Sound Waves
- The human ear can detect an extraordinary range of sound intensities, from a faint whisper to a clap of thunder 10 billion times as loud.
- The ear can distinguish frequencies from 20 to 20,000 Hz, allowing us to recognize familiar voices and appreciate the nuances of music.
Physical Properties of Sound Waves
- Sound is a pressure wave traveling in a medium, usually air, but also in liquids and solids.
- The audible range for humans is 20-20,000 cycles per second (Hertz).
- Our hearing is particularly well-suited to frequencies near 3,700 Hz, which corresponds to human speech.
Energy Transmission in Sound Waves
- Energy is carried by sound waves in the form of moving pressure differences.
- Molecules of the medium vibrate to transmit the energy, but do not travel the length of the medium with the energy.
- The energy is carried by the compression of the medium, which moves along the length of the medium with a constant speed, c.
Sound Wave Propagation
- Sound waves propagate through a medium, such as air, by pushing molecules together, creating a pocket of higher pressure between areas of lower pressure.
- Each atom vibrates sinusoidally with a velocity, v = v0 sin(ωt), where ν0 is the amplitude of the velocity of the atom and ω is its angular frequency.
Speed of Sound and Intensity
- The speed of sound in air is constant through an air mass of uniform temperature, approximately 350 m/s or 785 mph.
- The intensity of a sound wave depends on the amount of energy it carries and is related to loudness, measured by the work done by the pressure wave per unit time on a surface of area A.
- Intensity, I, is calculated as: I = P ν / A, where P is the instantaneous pressure, ν is the instantaneous velocity of the atoms, and A is the area affected by the sound wave.
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Description
Explore the wide range of sound intensities and frequencies that the human ear can detect, and learn about how this information is transmitted to and integrated in the brain. This chapter reviews the physical properties of sound waves and dives into the process of sound perception in the human ear.
