sound travel energy

• Why Does Water Expand When It Freezes
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• Parts of a Flower With Their Structure and Functions
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• Why Does Ice Float on Water
• Why Does Oil Float on Water
• How Do Clouds Form
• What Causes Lightning
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Sound Energy

Sound energy is a form of kinetic energy caused by the physical vibration of air particles or molecules. The particles collide with other neighboring particles causing them to vibrate. These vibrations travel in a straight line. When they reach our ears, we perceive them as sound.

Sound energy is derived from an external source. Here are some examples of how sound is generated.

• Car honking
• Airplane taking off
• Police whistling
• Dog barking
• Wind howling
• Baby crying

How does Sound Energy Work

The particles vibrate about their position until they reach an equilibrium. The vibrations, and hence sound, are transmitted in the form of a wave, known as a sound wave. The particles vibrate in the same direction as the wave propagates. Such type of wave is known as a longitudinal wave. The sound wave carries energy and keeps traveling until it loses energy.

Sound requires a medium to propagate. It can travel through air, water, wood, glass, or metal. Unlike light, sound cannot propagate in a vacuum since there are no particles to transmit the wave.

How does Sound Wave Transfer Energy to Your Ears

When sound waves reach our ears, they are funneled to the eardrum. The eardrum is a part of the ear that converts sound energy into mechanical movements. It vibrates when struck, and a fluid carries the vibrations through three connected bones. The moving fluid bends a series of hair-like cells that convert the vibrations into nerve impulses. These impulses are carried to the brain by auditory nerves. The brain interprets them as sound.

How is Sound Energy Measured

The intensity of sound is measured in the unit of decibels or dB, named after Scottish-born inventor Alexander Graham Bell. Bell invented the audiometer, a device that measures how well a person can hear sound. The decibel scale is logarithmic, which means that it represents the ratio of two measurable physical quantities. Similarly, sound pressure can also be expressed in dB. For example, a normal speaking voice is 60 dB. The sound of an airplane taking off is 115 dB.

Sound wave frequency is measured in the unit of Hertz or Hz. One Hertz is equal to one sound vibration in one second. For a human to hear the sound, the frequency must be between 20 and 20,000 Hz. Any frequency below 20 Hz is called infrasound; above 20,000 Hz is called ultrasound. These two types of sound are inaudible to the human ear.

Conversion of Sound Energy

From the energy conservation law, energy can neither be created nor destroyed. It can be transferred from one form to another. Here are some examples of how sound energy can be converted into other forms and vice versa.

• A microphone converts sound energy to electrical energy
• A loudspeaker converts electrical energy into sound energy
• A drummer converts mechanical energy into sound energy
• An electric bell converts electrical energy into sound energy

The primary use of sound energy is for hearing. Aside, it has other applications.

• Scientists use infrasonic sound to predict an earthquake, volcano, and avalanche
• A particular type of sound, SONAR (Sound Navigation And Ranging), is used to map the ocean floor
• Doctors use ultrasound to cure tumor cells of a cancer patient without any physical pain
• Doctors also use ultrasound on pregnant women to detect any abnormality in the fetus
• Ultrasound is used in the industry to detect any flaws in machinery parts and to determine the thickness of metal
• Soothing musical sound from Tibetian bowls can remove stress and body pain
• Bats produce ultrasonic waves to communicate among themselves and to find obstacles in their path
• Sound Energy: Everything You Need to Know About This Electrifying Source – Justenergy.com
• Sound Energy – Solarschools.net
• Definition of Sound Energy – Eartheclipse.com
• Sound Energy: A Beginner’s Guide to This Emerging Energy Source – Taraenergy.com

Article was last reviewed on Thursday, July 28, 2022

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by Chris Woodford . Last updated: July 23, 2023.

Photo: Sound is energy we hear made by things that vibrate. Photo by William R. Goodwin courtesy of US Navy and Wikimedia Commons .

What is sound?

Photo: Sensing with sound: Light doesn't travel well through ocean water: over half the light falling on the sea surface is absorbed within the first meter of water; 100m down and only 1 percent of the surface light remains. That's largely why mighty creatures of the deep rely on sound for communication and navigation. Whales, famously, "talk" to one another across entire ocean basins, while dolphins use sound, like bats, for echolocation. Photo by Bill Thompson courtesy of US Fish and Wildlife Service .

Robert Boyle's classic experiment

Artwork: Robert Boyle's famous experiment with an alarm clock.

How sound travels

Artwork: Sound waves and ocean waves compared. Top: Sound waves are longitudinal waves: the air moves back and forth along the same line as the wave travels, making alternate patterns of compressions and rarefactions. Bottom: Ocean waves are transverse waves: the water moves back and forth at right angles to the line in which the wave travels.

The science of sound waves

Picture: Reflected sound is extremely useful for "seeing" underwater where light doesn't really travel—that's the basic idea behind sonar. Here's a side-scan sonar (reflected sound) image of a World War II boat wrecked on the seabed. Photo courtesy of U.S. National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, US Navy, and Wikimedia Commons .

Whispering galleries and amphitheaters

Photos by Carol M. Highsmith: 1) The Capitol in Washington, DC has a whispering gallery inside its dome. Photo credit: The George F. Landegger Collection of District of Columbia Photographs in Carol M. Highsmith's America, Library of Congress , Prints and Photographs Division. 2) It's easy to hear people talking in the curved memorial amphitheater building at Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia. Photo credit: Photographs in the Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Library of Congress , Prints and Photographs Division.

Measuring waves

Understanding amplitude and frequency, why instruments sound different, the speed of sound.

Photo: Breaking through the sound barrier creates a sonic boom. The mist you can see, which is called a condensation cloud, isn't necessarily caused by an aircraft flying supersonic: it can occur at lower speeds too. It happens because moist air condenses due to the shock waves created by the plane. You might expect the plane to compress the air as it slices through. But the shock waves it generates alternately expand and contract the air, producing both compressions and rarefactions. The rarefactions cause very low pressure and it's these that make moisture in the air condense, producing the cloud you see here. Photo by John Gay courtesy of US Navy and Wikimedia Commons .

Why does sound go faster in some things than in others?

Chart: Generally, sound travels faster in solids (right) than in liquids (middle) or gases (left)... but there are exceptions!

How to measure the speed of sound

Sound in practice, if you liked this article..., don't want to read our articles try listening instead, find out more, on this website.

• Electric guitars
• Speech synthesis
• Synthesizers

On other sites

• Explore Sound : A comprehensive educational site from the Acoustical Society of America, with activities for students of all ages.
• Sound Waves : A great collection of interactive science lessons from the University of Salford, which explains what sound waves are and the different ways in which they behave.

Educational books for younger readers

• Sound (Science in a Flash) by Georgia Amson-Bradshaw. Franklin Watts/Hachette, 2020. Simple facts, experiments, and quizzes fill this book; the visually exciting design will appeal to reluctant readers. Also for ages 7–9.
• Sound by Angela Royston. Raintree, 2017. A basic introduction to sound and musical sounds, including simple activities. Ages 7–9.
• Experimenting with Sound Science Projects by Robert Gardner. Enslow Publishers, 2013. A comprehensive 120-page introduction, running through the science of sound in some detail, with plenty of hands-on projects and activities (including welcome coverage of how to run controlled experiments using the scientific method). Ages 9–12.
• Cool Science: Experiments with Sound and Hearing by Chris Woodford. Gareth Stevens Inc, 2010. One of my own books, this is a short introduction to sound through practical activities, for ages 9–12.
• Adventures in Sound with Max Axiom, Super Scientist by Emily Sohn. Capstone, 2007. The original, graphic novel (comic book) format should appeal to reluctant readers. Ages 8–10.

Popular science

• The Sound Book: The Science of the Sonic Wonders of the World by Trevor Cox. W. W. Norton, 2014. An entertaining tour through everyday sound science.

Academic books

• Master Handbook of Acoustics by F. Alton Everest and Ken Pohlmann. McGraw-Hill Education, 2015. A comprehensive reference for undergraduates and sound-design professionals.
• The Science of Sound by Thomas D. Rossing, Paul A. Wheeler, and F. Richard Moore. Pearson, 2013. One of the most popular general undergraduate texts.

Text copyright © Chris Woodford 2009, 2021. All rights reserved. Full copyright notice and terms of use .

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Home » sound energy definition and examples

Sound Energy: Definition And Examples

Daniel Nelson

Sound energy is the energy released by the vibration of objects, and measured in a unit called joules. Sound is a wave, and it has oscillating compressions and displacement, being able to store both kinetic energy and potential energy.

That’s the quick definition of sound energy, but to better understand sound energy, it would be helpful to take a closer look at the structure of sound and how it interacts with objects, as well as how it stores and releases energy.

“Sound is the vocabulary of nature.” — Pierre Schaeffer

What Is Sound?

Let’s start off by defining sound. Sound can be thought of as simply the energy that objects create when they are vibrating. As an example, consider a drum that vibrates when hit. The drum pushes the air around the drum around and makes it vibrate in addition. The energy will move through the air, making it vibrate in every direction until the vibrations hit your ear, and this is what causes the perception of sound. While sound can be said to have two different aspects to it – a psychological aspect that is the perception and interpretation of sound within the ears and brain, and the physical process that creates sound energy – this article will deal mainly with the physical aspects of sound.

Sound is the travel of energy through the air and its arrival at the ear following this. You can think of the sound waves as similar to ocean waves, traveling in a specific direction and vibrating in a specific way. However, there is a difference between how ocean waves vibrate and soundwaves vibrate. While ocean waves vibrate up and down, sound waves do not vibrate in this way. Ocean waves are referred to as transverse waves because as the water moves up and down, the energy and the wave transverses forward.

In contrast, as soundwaves travel forward, the air in front of the soundwaves spreads out in some areas and is bunched together in other areas. This creates rarefactions and compressions, stretched out areas and bunched up areas respectively. So while ocean waves vibrant up and down and water, the soundwaves will either pull or push the air back and forth.

Sound Waves And Reflection

If you watch the way that ocean waves interact with a beachfront, you’ll notice that they do things like hit beach walls and are reflected back into the ocean. The waves can also spread up the beach until they run out of energy or spread out in ripples. This is a reflection of the way that energy behaves when transferred by ocean waves, and soundwaves can be thought of as reflecting in this matter as well.

Soundwaves can reflect off surfaces just the way that ocean waves bounce off of the seawall, or much like light reflects off the mirror. Echoes are just reflections of soundwaves, they are simply sound reflections. The sound energy that originates from a source bounces off of the surface and travels back in the direction of the source, entering your ears a second time. There is a delay between the origination of the sound and the echo that you hear, due to the fact that it takes more time for the sound of the echo to reflect off of the surface and travel back.

“Sound waves do not die out. They travel forever and forever. All our sentences are immortal. Our useless bleatings circle the universe for all eternity.” — Fay Weldon

As they travel, sound waves lose their energy . Aspects of the environment, such as wind and weather can affect how quickly the sound waves lose their energy and are overwhelmed by other sounds. This is why it is easier to hear sounds far away on calm days than on windy days, as the wind dissipates their energy quicker. Likewise, ocean waves also would dissipate in similar fashions. Waves of water are capable of traveling far into the ocean, yet they can also be interrupted by stormy weather.

Sound waves are similar to ocean waves and light waves in other aspects well. As ocean waves travel into a bay, they spread out and ripple in circles. Soundwaves have this property as well, which is why they can be heard around corners. For instance, if someone is playing a musical instrument around the corner, the soundwaves will travel out from the source point and spread out as they move, enabling them to be heard even though the soundwaves aren’t coming at you in a straight line. This property is called diffraction.

Measuring  Sound Waves

Sounds have different frequencies. Waves on the bottom have higher frequencies than those on top. Photo: LucasVB via Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain

All sound waves have similar properties, acting in the same way. They travel through the environment by making molecules and atoms vibrate back and forth. However, soundwaves are different as well, having different pitches and cadences, being loud or quiet. What accounts for differences between sounds when the soundwaves are operating in the exact same way? The energy that soundwaves make when an object vibrates possesses a specific pattern, small or large. The amplitude or intensity of the sound refers to how loud a sound is, and a larger, more powerful sounds have higher amplitude.

While amplitude is one property of soundwaves, another property of soundwaves is their frequency or pitch . The frequency or pitch of a sound wave refers to the number of waves that a sound source creates in approximately one second. A violin is a higher-pitched instrument than a double bass instrument, so violins make higher-pitched sound/produce more waves second than base instruments.

Shows how pitch changes over time. Photo: By Rburtonresearch – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=45074869

So why is it that a piano and violin can produce soundwaves that have the exact same frequency and amplitude and yet sound different from one another? This is because the waves they produce are not identical, even if they are similar in frequency and amplitude. Any given instrument will make many different soundwaves at a given time. There is the main wave that has a certain pitch and amplitude to it, and this main wave is referred to as the fundamental. Over the fundamental, there are waves referred to as overtones and harmonics, which are made out of higher-pitched sounds with a frequency that is many times higher than the fundamental frequency.

Due to these facets of soundwaves, every instrument has its own unique combination of harmonics and frequencies referred to as a timbre. This means that even very similar instruments have their own unique sound profile. The amplitude of the waves produced by a certain instrument also shifts in unique ways over a period of time, higher-pitched noises frequently dissolve quicker and die off than lower tones.

The Speed Of Sound

As previously mentioned, sound carries energy and waves, and therefore the speed of sound refers to the speed at which the sound waves move. The speed of sound is the speed at which sound energy moves between two different points. The speed of sound isn’t actually a constant speed, rather it differs in different atmospheric conditions. Sound will travel at different speeds through gases, liquids, and solids, and even the speed it has through a specific type of material can change. However, in general, the speed of sound at sea level is around 1220 km an hour or 760 miles per hour.

The speed of sound is roughly correlated with the density of the medium it is traveling through, and it travels faster through solid and liquid materials than gas. Sound travels around 15 times faster through a section of steel than it does through the air, and it also travels through the water about four times faster than air.  In terms of how sound travels through gases, the speed of sound depends on the type of gas and other factors like temperature. The chemical makeup of the gas influences the speed at which the sound travels, for instance, sound travels around three times quicker in helium gas than in the regular air found in the atmosphere. Sound also travels quicker in the warmer air that is close to the ground than in the colder air which is higher up.

“Since light travels faster than sound, some people appear to be bright until you hear them speak.” — Brian Williams

So what is the sound barrier? When a jet airplane is said to break the sound barrier , it accelerates to a speed that it is able to move faster than the high-intensity sound waves that are coming from its own engines. As the sound waves compress together, they overlap and produce a barrier that rapidly expands as the jet plane passes through them, creating a powerful, loud sonic boom. The fact that the jets are moving faster than the speed of sound is the reason that fighter planes can fly by a second or two before their jet engines are heard.

How Different Musical Instruments Work

Photo: Pexels via Pixabay, CC0

When it comes to music , different musical instruments produce sound in different ways. Instruments like drums, pianos, and xylophones are known as percussive instruments. These percussive instruments operate through striking an object with a hammer or similar tool, making the object vibrate. The drumhead or piano wire vibrates in its own unique way , creating the sound waves that travel through the air.

Meanwhile, wind instruments and brass instruments function by making an air column resonate, causing the air to vibrate back and forth. The valves and holes on the instrument control the intensity of the residence, altering the pitch of the instrument.

Electrical or synthetic instruments operate by creating electrical vibrations. The circuits within the instrument create different waveforms that either mimic the sounds of traditional instruments or create new sounds altogether.

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14.1 Speed of Sound, Frequency, and Wavelength

Section learning objectives.

By the end of this section, you will be able to do the following:

• Relate the characteristics of waves to properties of sound waves
• Describe the speed of sound and how it changes in various media
• Relate the speed of sound to frequency and wavelength of a sound wave

Teacher Support

The learning objectives in this section will help your students master the following standards:

• (A) examine and describe oscillatory motion and wave propagation in various types of media;
• (B) investigate and analyze characteristics of waves, including velocity, frequency, amplitude, and wavelength, and calculate using the relationship between wave speed, frequency, and wavelength;
• (C) compare characteristics and behaviors of transverse waves, including electromagnetic waves and the electromagnetic spectrum, and characteristics and behaviors of longitudinal waves, including sound waves;
• (F) describe the role of wave characteristics and behaviors in medical and industrial applications.

In addition, the High School Physics Laboratory Manual addresses content in this section in the lab titled: Waves, as well as the following standards:

• (B) investigate and analyze characteristics of waves, including velocity, frequency, amplitude, and wavelength, and calculate using the relationship between wave speed, frequency, and wavelength.

Section Key Terms

[BL] [OL] Review waves and types of waves—mechanical and non-mechanical, transverse and longitudinal, pulse and periodic. Review properties of waves—amplitude, period, frequency, velocity and their inter-relations.

Properties of Sound Waves

Sound is a wave. More specifically, sound is defined to be a disturbance of matter that is transmitted from its source outward. A disturbance is anything that is moved from its state of equilibrium. Some sound waves can be characterized as periodic waves, which means that the atoms that make up the matter experience simple harmonic motion .

A vibrating string produces a sound wave as illustrated in Figure 14.2 , Figure 14.3 , and Figure 14.4 . As the string oscillates back and forth, part of the string’s energy goes into compressing and expanding the surrounding air. This creates slightly higher and lower pressures. The higher pressure... regions are compressions, and the low pressure regions are rarefactions . The pressure disturbance moves through the air as longitudinal waves with the same frequency as the string. Some of the energy is lost in the form of thermal energy transferred to the air. You may recall from the chapter on waves that areas of compression and rarefaction in longitudinal waves (such as sound) are analogous to crests and troughs in transverse waves .

The amplitude of a sound wave decreases with distance from its source, because the energy of the wave is spread over a larger and larger area. But some of the energy is also absorbed by objects, such as the eardrum in Figure 14.5 , and some of the energy is converted to thermal energy in the air. Figure 14.4 shows a graph of gauge pressure versus distance from the vibrating string. From this figure, you can see that the compression of a longitudinal wave is analogous to the peak of a transverse wave, and the rarefaction of a longitudinal wave is analogous to the trough of a transverse wave. Just as a transverse wave alternates between peaks and troughs, a longitudinal wave alternates between compression and rarefaction.

The Speed of Sound

[BL] Review the fact that sound is a mechanical wave and requires a medium through which it is transmitted.

[OL] [AL] Ask students if they know the speed of sound and if not, ask them to take a guess. Ask them why the sound of thunder is heard much after the lightning is seen during storms. This phenomenon is also observed during a display of fireworks. Through this discussion, develop the concept that the speed of sound is finite and measurable and is much slower than that of light.

The speed of sound varies greatly depending upon the medium it is traveling through. The speed of sound in a medium is determined by a combination of the medium’s rigidity (or compressibility in gases) and its density. The more rigid (or less compressible) the medium, the faster the speed of sound. The greater the density of a medium, the slower the speed of sound. The speed of sound in air is low, because air is compressible. Because liquids and solids are relatively rigid and very difficult to compress, the speed of sound in such media is generally greater than in gases. Table 14.1 shows the speed of sound in various media. Since temperature affects density, the speed of sound varies with the temperature of the medium through which it’s traveling to some extent, especially for gases.

Misconception Alert

Students might be confused between rigidity and density and how they affect the speed of sound. The speed of sound is slower in denser media. Solids are denser than gases. However, they are also very rigid, and hence sound travels faster in solids. Stress on the fact that the speed of sound always depends on a combination of these two properties of any medium.

[BL] Note that in the table, the speed of sound in very rigid materials such as glass, aluminum, and steel ... is quite high, whereas the speed in rubber, which is considerably less rigid, is quite low.

The Relationship Between the Speed of Sound and the Frequency and Wavelength of a Sound Wave

Sound, like all waves, travels at certain speeds through different media and has the properties of frequency and wavelength . Sound travels much slower than light—you can observe this while watching a fireworks display (see Figure 14.6 ), since the flash of an explosion is seen before its sound is heard.

The relationship between the speed of sound, its frequency, and wavelength is the same as for all waves:

where v is the speed of sound (in units of m/s), f is its frequency (in units of hertz), and λ λ is its wavelength (in units of meters). Recall that wavelength is defined as the distance between adjacent identical parts of a wave. The wavelength of a sound, therefore, is the distance between adjacent identical parts of a sound wave. Just as the distance between adjacent crests in a transverse wave is one wavelength, the distance between adjacent compressions in a sound wave is also one wavelength, as shown in Figure 14.7 . The frequency of a sound wave is the same as that of the source. For example, a tuning fork vibrating at a given frequency would produce sound waves that oscillate at that same frequency. The frequency of a sound is the number of waves that pass a point per unit time.

[BL] [OL] [AL] In musical instruments, shorter strings vibrate faster and hence produce sounds at higher pitches. Fret placements on instruments such as guitars, banjos, and mandolins, are mathematically determined to give the correct interval or change in pitch. When the string is pushed against the fret wire, the string is effectively shortened, changing its pitch. Ask students to experiment with strings of different lengths and observe how the pitch changes in each case.

One of the more important properties of sound is that its speed is nearly independent of frequency. If this were not the case, and high-frequency sounds traveled faster, for example, then the farther you were from a band in a football stadium, the more the sound from the low-pitch instruments would lag behind the high-pitch ones. But the music from all instruments arrives in cadence independent of distance, and so all frequencies must travel at nearly the same speed.

Recall that v = f λ v = f λ , and in a given medium under fixed temperature and humidity, v is constant. Therefore, the relationship between f and λ λ is inverse: The higher the frequency, the shorter the wavelength of a sound wave.

Teacher Demonstration

Hold a meter stick flat on a desktop, with about 80 cm sticking out over the edge of the desk. Make the meter stick vibrate by pulling the tip down and releasing, while holding the meter stick tight to the desktop. While it is vibrating, move the stick back onto the desktop, shortening the part that is sticking out. Students will see the shortening of the vibrating part of the meter stick, and hear the pitch or number of vibrations go up—an increase in frequency.

The speed of sound can change when sound travels from one medium to another. However, the frequency usually remains the same because it is like a driven oscillation and maintains the frequency of the original source. If v changes and f remains the same, then the wavelength λ λ must change. Since v = f λ v = f λ , the higher the speed of a sound, the greater its wavelength for a given frequency.

[AL] Ask students to predict what would happen if the speeds of sound in air varied by frequency.

Virtual Physics

This simulation lets you see sound waves. Adjust the frequency or amplitude (volume) and you can see and hear how the wave changes. Move the listener around and hear what she hears. Switch to the Two Source Interference tab or the Interference by Reflection tab to experiment with interference and reflection.

Tips For Success

Make sure to have audio enabled and set to Listener rather than Speaker, or else the sound will not vary as you move the listener around.

• Because, intensity of the sound wave changes with the frequency.
• Because, the speed of the sound wave changes when the frequency is changed.
• Because, loudness of the sound wave takes time to adjust after a change in frequency.
• Because it takes time for sound to reach the listener, so the listener perceives the new frequency of sound wave after a delay.
• Yes, the speed of propagation depends only on the frequency of the wave.
• Yes, the speed of propagation depends upon the wavelength of the wave, and wavelength changes as the frequency changes.
• No, the speed of propagation depends only on the wavelength of the wave.
• No, the speed of propagation is constant in a given medium; only the wavelength changes as the frequency changes.

Voice as a Sound Wave

In this lab you will observe the effects of blowing and speaking into a piece of paper in order to compare and contrast different sound waves.

• sheet of paper

Instructions

• Suspend a sheet of paper so that the top edge of the paper is fixed and the bottom edge is free to move. You could tape the top edge of the paper to the edge of a table, for example.
• Gently blow air near the edge of the bottom of the sheet and note how the sheet moves.
• Speak softly and then louder such that the sounds hit the edge of the bottom of the paper, and note how the sheet moves.
• Interpret the results.

Grasp Check

Which sound wave property increases when you are speaking more loudly than softly?

• amplitude of the wave
• frequency of the wave
• speed of the wave
• wavelength of the wave

Worked Example

What are the wavelengths of audible sounds.

Calculate the wavelengths of sounds at the extremes of the audible range, 20 and 20,000 Hz, in conditions where sound travels at 348.7 m/s.

To find wavelength from frequency, we can use v = f λ v = f λ .

(1) Identify the knowns. The values for v and f are given.

(2) Solve the relationship between speed, frequency and wavelength for λ λ .

(3) Enter the speed and the minimum frequency to give the maximum wavelength.

(4) Enter the speed and the maximum frequency to give the minimum wavelength.

Because the product of f multiplied by λ λ equals a constant velocity in unchanging conditions, the smaller f is, the larger λ λ must be, and vice versa. Note that you can also easily rearrange the same formula to find frequency or velocity.

Practice Problems

• 5 × 10 3 m / s
• 3.2 × 10 2 m / s
• 2 × 10 − 4 m/s
• 8 × 10 2 m / s
• 2.0 × 10 7 m
• 1.5 × 10 7 m
• 1.4 × 10 2 m
• 7.4 × 10 − 3 m

Links To Physics

Echolocation.

Echolocation is the use of reflected sound waves to locate and identify objects. It is used by animals such as bats, dolphins and whales, and is also imitated by humans in SONAR—Sound Navigation and Ranging—and echolocation technology.

Bats, dolphins and whales use echolocation to navigate and find food in their environment. They locate an object (or obstacle) by emitting a sound and then sensing the reflected sound waves. Since the speed of sound in air is constant, the time it takes for the sound to travel to the object and back gives the animal a sense of the distance between itself and the object. This is called ranging . Figure 14.8 shows a bat using echolocation to sense distances.

Echolocating animals identify an object by comparing the relative intensity of the sound waves returning to each ear to figure out the angle at which the sound waves were reflected. This gives information about the direction, size and shape of the object. Since there is a slight distance in position between the two ears of an animal, the sound may return to one of the ears with a bit of a delay, which also provides information about the position of the object. For example, if a bear is directly to the right of a bat, the echo will return to the bat’s left ear later than to its right ear. If, however, the bear is directly ahead of the bat, the echo would return to both ears at the same time. For an animal without a sense of sight such as a bat, it is important to know where other animals are as well as what they are; their survival depends on it.

Principles of echolocation have been used to develop a variety of useful sensing technologies. SONAR, is used by submarines to detect objects underwater and measure water depth. Unlike animal echolocation, which relies on only one transmitter (a mouth) and two receivers (ears), manmade SONAR uses many transmitters and beams to get a more accurate reading of the environment. Radar technologies use the echo of radio waves to locate clouds and storm systems in weather forecasting, and to locate aircraft for air traffic control. Some new cars use echolocation technology to sense obstacles around the car, and warn the driver who may be about to hit something (or even to automatically parallel park). Echolocation technologies and training systems are being developed to help visually impaired people navigate their everyday environments.

• The echo would return to the left ear first.
• The echo would return to the right ear first.

Check Your Understanding

Use these questions to assess student achievement of the section’s Learning Objectives. If students are struggling with a specific objective, these questions will help identify which and direct students to the relevant content.

• Rarefaction is the high-pressure region created in a medium when a longitudinal wave passes through it.
• Rarefaction is the low-pressure region created in a medium when a longitudinal wave passes through it.
• Rarefaction is the highest point of amplitude of a sound wave.
• Rarefaction is the lowest point of amplitude of a sound wave.

What sort of motion do the particles of a medium experience when a sound wave passes through it?

• Simple harmonic motion
• Circular motion
• Random motion
• Translational motion

What does the speed of sound depend on?

• The wavelength of the wave
• The size of the medium
• The frequency of the wave
• The properties of the medium

What property of a gas would affect the speed of sound traveling through it?

• The volume of the gas
• The flammability of the gas
• The mass of the gas
• The compressibility of the gas

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Want to cite, share, or modify this book? This book uses the Creative Commons Attribution License and you must attribute Texas Education Agency (TEA). The original material is available at: https://www.texasgateway.org/book/tea-physics . Changes were made to the original material, including updates to art, structure, and other content updates.

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• Authors: Paul Peter Urone, Roger Hinrichs
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• Book title: Physics
• Publication date: Mar 26, 2020
• Location: Houston, Texas
• Book URL: https://openstax.org/books/physics/pages/1-introduction
• Section URL: https://openstax.org/books/physics/pages/14-1-speed-of-sound-frequency-and-wavelength

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Sound is a pressure wave, but this wave behaves slightly differently through air as compared to water. Water is denser than air, so it takes more energy to generate a wave, but once a wave has started, it will travel faster than it would do in air.

A relay race

Sound travels by particles bumping into each other as they vibrate. It is a little like a relay race – each runner holds a little bit of information (the baton), and when they make contact with the next runner, they pass the information on.

In the case of sound, the runners are particles and the information (baton) they are passing along is energy of vibration. In a sound wave, a particle picks up some energy and keeps it until it bumps into a neighbouring particle. The next particle will then pick up the energy and transfer it to the next one in the chain. This happens extremely fast and is detected as a wave of pressure.

Sound won’t travel in a vacuum because there are no particles to bump together to transmit the vibration.

Sound in air

In a gas like air, the particles are generally far apart so they travel further before they bump into one another. There is not much resistance to movement so it doesn’t take much to start a wave, but it won’t travel as fast.

Sound in water

In water, the particles are much closer together, and they can quickly transmit vibration energy from one particle to the next. This means that the sound wave travels over four times faster than it would in air, but it takes a lot of energy to start the vibration. A faint sound in air wouldn’t be transmitted in water as the wave wouldn’t have enough energy to force the water particles to move.

Sound in solids

In a solid, the particles are even closer together and linked by chemical bonds so the wave travels even faster than it does in either liquid or air, but you need quite a lot of energy to start the wave at the beginning.

Sound and temperature

Temperature has a marked influence on the speed of sound. This is not due to a change in how closely together the particles are to each other but relates to the amount of energy that each particle has. Hot particles have more energy and transmit sound better than cold particles. Water in Antarctica will transmit sound slower than water in the tropics.

Some comparisons for the speed of sound in different materials

Related content.

Explore the science concept related to sound further with these articles:

• Hearing sound – the basics of sound waves
• Measuring sound – the different parts of a sound wave, how we talk about and measure sound
• Sound – visualising sound waves – helps students to 'see’ sound waves with videos and diagrams

In our recorded PLD session Sounds of Aotearoa a group of primary science educators introduce some fun ways you can learn and teach about sound.

Activity ideas

Use these activities to explore some essential physics ideas relating to sound, but in a whole new way.

• Modelling waves with slinkies – stay indoors and model how sound travels.
• Catching worms using ground sounds – go outdoors and investigate whether there is any evidence that earthworms respond to vibrations in the ground.
• Sound detectives – can you locate sounds while blindfolded?
• Make and use a hydrophone – and listen to underwater sounds.
• Sound on an oscilloscope – use oscilloscope software and your computer to make and watch a visual sound display.
• Investigating sound – simple exploratory activities and questions to experience and build an understanding of sound.
• Hearing sounds – using whispers and vibrations to hear and experience how sound moves.
• Hearing sounds under water – go underwater yourselves to listen to sounds
• Measuring the speed of sound – use a timing app to measure the speed of sound.

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Science Struck

How Does Sound Travel? Here’s the Science Behind This Concept

When sound waves travel through a medium, the particles of the medium vibrate. Vibrations reach the ear and then the brain which senses them and we recognize sound. Read on for an explanation of how sound travels.

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Sound is a series of compression and rarefraction waves that can travel long distances. It is produced by the vibration of the particles present in its medium; a medium is the material through which sound can travel. Presence of a medium is a must for the movement of sound waves. There are various types of medium through which sound waves can move like solids, liquids, gases, plasma, etc. Sound cannot travel through vacuum.

Characteristics of Sound Waves

The speed and the physical characteristics of sound largely varies with the change in its ambient conditions. The speed of sound depends on the density of the medium though which it is traveling. If its density is quite high, then sound would travel at a faster pace. When sound travels through gaseous medium, its speed varies with respect to changes in temperature.

The frequency of sound waves is nothing but the total number of vibrations that have been produced. The length of sound waves vary according to its frequency. Sound waves with long wavelengths have low frequency or low pitch; and those with short wavelengths have high frequency or high pitch. Our ears are capable of hearing only those sound waves which lie in the range between 20 and 20,000 vibrations per second.

How do Sound Waves Travel?

Basically, there are three things that are required for the transmission of sound. They are: a source that can transmit the sound, a medium through which sound can pass (like, water, air, etc.), and the receiver or the detector which receives the sound. The traveling process of sound has been explained below.

Creation of Sound

When a physical object moves in air, it causes vibrations which leads to formation of a series of compression waves in the air. These waves travel in the form of sound. For instance, when we strum the strings of a guitar or hit the head of a drum, the to-and-fro motion of the strings or the drum head creates compression waves of sound in the surrounding air. Similarly, when we speak, our vocal cords vibrate and the sound is created. This type of vibration occurs not just in atmospheric air but in other mediums like, solids and liquids as well. For instance, when a train is moving on a railroad made up of steel, the sound waves thus produced travel via these tracks.

At room temperature, sound travels through air with a speed of 343 m/s, through water at 1,482 m/s, and through steel at 5,960 m/s. As you can see, sound waves travel in a gaseous medium at a slow pace because its molecules are loosely bound and have to cover a long distance to collide with another molecule. In solid medium, the atoms are so closely packed that the vibration is readily transmitted to the neighboring atoms, and sound travels quite fast. In liquid medium, the bonding between the component particles are not as strong as in solids. Therefore, the sound waves move through it at a less speed as compared to solid.

Detection of Sound

When the sound waves hit the receiver, it causes some vibration in that object. The detector captures just a part of the energy from the moving sound wave. This energy of vibration is then converted to electrical signals. Thus, when the sound waves reach our ears, the eardrum present inside it vibrates. This vibration reaches our inner ear and is converted into nerve signals. As a result, we can hear the sound. Devices like microphone can detect sound. The sound waves create vibrations in its membrane which forms electrical signals that gets amplified and recorded.

So, how does sound travel? Vibration of an object causes vibrations of the same frequency in the surrounding medium. The vibrations are sent to the inner ear. After the auditory nerve picks up these vibrations, electrical signals are sent to the brain where the vibrations are recognized as sound.

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How Sound Travels

Sound travels in mechanical waves . A mechanical wave is a disturbance that moves and transports energy from one place to another through a medium . In sound, the disturbance is a vibrating object. And the medium can be any series of interconnected and interactive particles. This means that sound can travel through gases, liquids and solids.

Let's take a look at an example. Imagine a church bell. When a bell rings, it vibrates, which means the bell itself flexes inward and outward very rapidly. As the bell moves outward, it pushes against particles of air. Those air particles then push against other adjacent air particles, and so on. As the bell flexes inward, it pulls against the adjacent air particles, and they, in turn, pull against other air particles. This push and pull pattern is a sound wave. The vibrating bell is the original disturbance, and the air particles are the medium.

The bell's vibrations push and pull against adjacent air

Molecules, creating a sound wave..

Sound isn't restricted to moving through the air. Press your ear against a solid surface like a table and close your eyes. Tell someone else to tap his or her finger on the other end of the table. The tapping becomes the initial disturbance. Each tap sends vibrations through the table. The particles in the table collide with each other and become the medium for the sound. The particles in the table collide with air particles between the table and your eardrum . When a wave moves from one medium to another like this, it's called transmission .

The air particles collide with your ear's tympanic membrane , also known as the eardrum. This sets off a series of vibrations in several structures inside the ear. The brain interprets these vibrations as sounds. The whole process is pretty complex. You can learn more in How Hearing Works .

So, sound needs a physical medium in order to travel anywhere. Is there enough physical material in space to act as a medium for sound waves? Find out in the next section.

The speed of a sound wave depends upon the medium through which it travels. In general, sound travels faster through solids than through liquids or gases. Also, the denser the medium, the slower sound will travel through it. The same sound will travel at a different speed on a cold day than it would on a warm day.

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The Darkest Hour

In Moscow, five young people lead the charge against an alien race who have attacked Earth via our power supply. In Moscow, five young people lead the charge against an alien race who have attacked Earth via our power supply. In Moscow, five young people lead the charge against an alien race who have attacked Earth via our power supply.

• Chris Gorak
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• 305 User reviews
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• Trivia The involvement of Timur Bekmambetov as producer afforded the production the opportunity of using Russia as a backdrop instead of the usual USA locations. Bekmambetov owns a film production company in Moscow called Bazelevs where most of the movie was made.
• Goofs When the characters have to jump off the boat into the river, Sean and Natalie both jump in together holding hands. All the characters except Natalie emerge together and climb aboard the submarine. Somehow Natalie has managed to end up in the city, clearly more than a few kilometers away. She probably swam there, and it wasn't as far as a few kilometers.

Skyler : How'd you come up with that?

Sean : I don't know. Shark Week.

• Crazy credits All the opening credits briefly appear in Russian before translated into English.
• Connections Edited into The Darkest Hour: Deleted and Extended Scenes (2012)
• Soundtracks MOCKBA (Moscow) Written by Igor Pustelnik Performed by Marselle

User reviews 305

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• $30,000,000 (estimated)
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DTE asking customers to pick up the tab for trips on private corporate jets

As early as next month, the state could weigh in on DTE Energy’s latest consumer rate increase requests amid opposition from Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, who is fighting the utility's plans to spend tens of thousands of dollars on private corporate jet trips at the expense of its customers.

The corporate jet travel was disclosed by Nessel's office in cases filed by DTE seeking rate increase approval from the Michigan Public Service Commission. Nessel has opposed the proposed increase in her capacity as a consumer advocate , saying they should be cut by more than half.

DTE Gas filed its request for a $266 million rate increase in January, followed by a request by DTE Electric in March, seeking a $456.4 million increase.

Additional hearings are scheduled in September for the DTE Electric case, and a proposed decision from the administrative law judge handling the DTE Gas case is also expected in early September.

And while this is not the first time that the Attorney General's Office has requested travel information from DTE, it is the first case of contested travel expenses "so significant" it prompted the attorney general to identify it as a stand-alone issue in its filings, a spokesman told the Free Press on Monday.

According to an expert's testimony hired by Nessel reviewed by the Free Press, the two companies spent tens of thousands of dollars for travel on corporate jets in 2022: $15,841 for a one-way trip from Houston to Oakland County for a single board member; $10,281 for a round trip to Mackinac Island for five executives to attend the Mackinac Policy Conference put on by the Detroit Regional Chamber; and more than $73,000 to fly several executives and board members to and from Fort Lauderdale for the annual DTE shareholders meeting. The plane typically flies out of the Oakland County International Airport in Waterford.

Together the 17 trips in 2022 cost over $246,391, according to testimony from the consultant working for the Attorney General's Office, and DTE is asking that future travel expenses be covered in the rate-increase requests for DTE Electric and DTE Gas.

DTE's travel request is 33% more than what it spent in 2022, or a total of $333,000 for the two companies, for a year-long period, according to testimony in the case by the expert working for Nessel, Sebastian Coppola, an independent business consultant in Rochester.

In a statement, DTE said its leaders relied on limited, corporate air travel for business needs – including meetings which provide best practices and information sharing to run "best-in-class" energy companies, as well as meetings necessary to attract investment dollars to Michigan. DTE board members who chose to fly on a corporate jet must pay for the costs, minus the price of a ticket on a commercial flight.

The trips allowed executives and board members to attend meetings with investors and security analysts, and out-of-town board of directors meetings.

DTE Energy is a publicly traded company based in Detroit and has multiple subsidiaries.

The utility has said the rate increases are needed to improve reliability and would be about an $11 monthly increase for the average residential electric consumer, and a $10 monthly increase for the average gas consumer.

Nessel's office is challenging both rate-increase requests, and has objected to passing along the costs of travel on corporate jets to rate-payers. According to Coppola's testimony in the two cases, DTE leases a fractional share of an aircraft for use by executives at the vice president level and above for business travel. Board members also travel on the corporate aircraft, records show.

In his written testimony, Coppola said the Michigan Public Service Commission should not allow DTE to recover the costs of private corporate jets, especially because the travel pertains to investor and board of director matters that do not directly benefit consumers, but may benefit shareholders.

Coppola's testimony also noted that while commercial flights may be less convenient, they are less costly and have less of an impact on the environment when comparing the emissions of private and commercial jets, and considering the number of passengers they carry.

In 2020, DTE Energy announced a goal of net zero emissions by 2050. "Private jet travel certainly goes counter to that goal," according to Coppola's testimony.

Three of the passengers on a DTE flight to Marquette were from an environmental organization, The Nature Conservancy. Helen Taylor, who runs the conservancy's Michigan office in Lansing, said it was an opportunity for the conservancy to show DTE its work in forest preservation in the Upper Peninsula.

"I think it was a positive outcome," Taylor told the Free Press. She said the conservancy works with partners of all kinds and makes decisions about transportation based on the circumstances.

In a statement, Matt Helms, a spokesman for the Michigan Public Service Commission, said: "We are unable to comment on issues brought up in rate cases pending before the commission, except to say that the Commission takes seriously its statutory mandate to review utility costs for reasonableness and prudence."

Nessel argues that DTE Gas should receive an annual increase of no more than $112 million, less than half the amount requested. The DTE proposal would raise rates for consumers by almost 10%, her proposal would result in a smaller rate increase of about 4%, according to her office.

She also argues that DTE Electric's annual rate increase should be no more than $139.5 million. DTE's proposal to raise rates to $456.4 million would hike rates for residential consumers by 10%, while her proposed amount would raise rates by 2.5%.

More: DTE Energy pushes for another electric rate increase: How much more you'd pay

In a news release, Nessel said DTE Electric asked for the latest rate increase just four months after the Michigan Public Service Commission granted the company a $368 million annual rate increase.

More: DTE seeking $266 million increase for natural gas rates; AG's office disagrees

"DTE files these rate hike requests fast and flimsy. We consistently find very little support for many of DTE’s claims.” said Nessel said in a May news release about the DTE Gas rate hike. "A lot of the proposed spending is questionable at best and at times downright insulting to consumers."

DTE sells natural gas to 1.3 million customers across Michigan, and electricity to 2.2 million customers in southeast Michigan.

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I Travel Solo Frequently, and This $18 Gadget Makes Me Feel Safer in Hotel Rooms

Flight attendants have even given it a stamp of approval.

Travel + Leisure / Tyler Roeland

As a travel and food writer, I spend a great deal of time traveling independently . This can be very exciting, as it gives me freedom to make my own schedule and explore fascinating destinations. But as a woman, traveling solo can also sometimes feel a little unsafe, especially in hotels and Airbnbs. The reality is that an intruder can invade your space regardless of the star rating of your accommodations. So for me, traveling with a portable door lock provides the additional layer of security to help me sleep better on the road. While I adore the Sabre Portable Door Lock , I'd also recommend the similar Addalock Portable Door Lock , which has more than 13,300 five-star ratings at Amazon.

I began traveling with the trusty travel lock after having too many recent occurrences of being in my hotel room and hearing someone attempting (but thankfully, failing) to open the door. I’ve also heard so many stories of travel writer friends accidentally being given a key card to the wrong room and walking in to find someone lounging in bed watching TV. If it could happen in that direction, it could easily happen in reverse. That hypothetical scenario alone was frightening enough to me, and it began to cause more than a little bedtime anxiety during my solo trips for work. When it came to a solution, I wanted a way of traveling and feeling more secure, but I also didn’t want to deal with anything bulky, heavy, or complicated. 

Addalock Portable Door Lock

That's where a lock like the Addalock Portable Door Lock comes in handy. This portable gadget is TSA-approved and is a flight attendant-approved safety method that can be used on pretty much any hinged door that swings inward. It comes in a discreet and compact carrying pouch that can go in any travel bag, so you can easily pack it without any extra hassle. But, its top quality is that it's incredibly simple to assemble. 

A little about me, I’m the least construction-savvy person ever — I’ve had a lightbulb out in my apartment for weeks because I can’t even manage climbing up high enough to change it without potentially breaking my neck  — so I was relieved to see how straightforward the installation was. There are no required tools or wires; all you have to do is open the door of your hotel room and place the latch of the Sabre Portable Door Lock or Addalock Portable Door Lock into the door lock striker on the door frame. Then, close the door and slide the lock on the portable key forward so that it sets in place.

This personal safety device's convenience isn't exclusive to hotel rooms. You can also use it for Airbnbs, beach rentals, the apartment bedroom that you're subletting, etc. In fact, a storyline on a recent episode of And Just Like That… covered the friendship conflicts associated with a shared summer beach rental. While that plot was more about relationship complications than safety, I couldn't help but wonder… about all of the potential security issues that could have come up; after all, a personal lock on the door to your room is not always a given, and travel accessories like the Addalock Portable Door Lock offer extra layers of security and privacy. And, this peace of mind will help you enjoy your trip more; you can't have a good time if you're constantly worried about someone breaking in while you're asleep or your belongings being stolen while you're out and about. 

In my experience, it’s all about peace of mind, whether we're talking about a solo female traveler or our elderly parents enjoying a beach rental while on vacation. No matter the reason for the trip, we all want to be able to relax and breathe easily while traveling. And, a no-brainer way to achieve that is traveling with the Addalock Portable Door Lock . Make sure to add it to your Amazon cart before your next trip, and check out the other top-rated personal safety items that will also make excellent travel companions. 

More Personal Safety Items at Amazon:

Sabre pepper spray and stun gun protection pack, kosin safe sound personal alarm set, nightcap drink cover scrunchie, crkt williams defense key tool , angelsense personal gps tracker , kubaton self defense keyring tool .

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