Nova Zhang
Sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave through a transmission medium such as gas, liquid, or solid. Sound waves can be analysed by pitch, duration, loudness, timbre, sonic texture, and spatial location. The loudness of a sound is determined by the amplitude of the sound wave, while pitch depends on its frequency. Sound is produced by vibrations from sources like musical instruments, and travels through air and is perceived by our ears.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Definition | Something that can be heard |
| Mechanical radiant energy transmitted by longitudinal pressure waves in a material medium such as air, water or solids | |
| Vibrational energy | |
| A disturbance in the pressure or density of a fluid or in the elastic strain of a solid | |
| The activity of recording and broadcasting | |
| Speed | 331 metres per second (741 miles per hour) at sea level |
| Loudness | Depends on the amplitude of the sound wave and is measured in decibels |
| Pitch | Depends on the frequency of the sound wave, measured in hertz |
| Analysis | Pitch, duration, loudness, timbre, sonic texture and spatial location |
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What You'll Learn
Sound as mechanical radiant energy
Sound is a particular auditory impression or tone that is produced when a force causes an object or substance to vibrate. Sound is a type of mechanical radiant energy that is transmitted by longitudinal pressure waves in a material medium, such as air, and is the objective cause of hearing. The energy in sound is typically lower than in other forms of energy, and it is often referred to as a form of energy, although this is not fundamentally true. Sound carries energy because it is a wave, and things that vibrate have energy.
Sound is a wave of energy that moves from one place to another, and it is referred to as a carrier of energy. The molecules of air vibrate back and forth around an average position, but they do not travel along the sound wave themselves; only the energy of the wave travels a significant distance. The loudness of a sound perceived by the ear depends on the amplitude of the sound wave and is measured in decibels, while the pitch depends on its frequency, measured in hertz.
Sound energy can be converted into radiant energy, although this is not a typical phenomenon as they are different forms of energy. Sound energy is produced by vibrations in a medium and can be converted into radiant energy through various methods, such as solar cell-powered speaker systems and acoustic thermophotovoltaics. In these systems, sound waves drive mechanisms that either generate electricity or increase temperatures, leading to thermal radiation. Devices like microphones can also serve as intermediaries by converting sound into electrical signals that can power light sources.
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Sound as auditory impression or tone
Sound is a mechanical radiant energy that is transmitted by longitudinal pressure waves in a material medium, such as air, water, or solids. The loudness of a sound is perceived by the ear and is measured in decibels, while its pitch depends on its frequency, measured in hertz.
The term 'sound' is also used in physiology and psychology to refer to the perception of these waves by the brain. This is studied in the field of psychoacoustics.
Sound can be defined as a particular auditory impression or tone. In music, a tone refers to a sound with a certain quality, resonance, and pitch. For example, the word 'tone' is used to describe the unique sound of a particular musical instrument, or the sound of a person's voice.
In everyday language, the words sound and noise are often used interchangeably to refer to something that can be heard. However, 'noise' typically refers to an unmusical or confused sound, such as street noises or the din of a boiler works.
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Sound waves and their analysis
Sound is a particular auditory impression or tone that can be heard. Sound waves are mechanical disturbances that propagate through a medium such as air, water, or solids, carrying energy and information. These waves are generated when something vibrates, like a drum skin when struck or vocal cords when speaking.
Sound waves are commonly visualized using sine functions, illustrating key aspects such as frequency, amplitude, and phase. The loudness of a sound perceived by the ear depends on the amplitude of the sound wave and is measured in decibels, while its pitch depends on its frequency, measured in hertz. Complex sound waves, which are typically encountered in real-world scenarios, can be decomposed into simpler sine waves through a process known as Fourier analysis. This decomposition allows for the extraction of fundamental frequencies and their harmonics, facilitating a deeper understanding of the sound's characteristics.
Sound waves are extensively used in acoustics to analyze and improve the acoustic characteristics of environments. This involves generating specific noise types, such as pink or white noise, and analyzing the room's response to optimize acoustics. Sound level meters are used to record the room's response, capturing how sound waves interact with various surfaces and objects within the space, including reflections, absorption, and diffusion. By analyzing the differences between the emitted sound and what is recorded, experts can identify acoustic flaws and make informed decisions to modify the space to achieve desired acoustic outcomes.
Additionally, sound waves have a range of applications in technology, including musical instruments and medical imaging. Understanding the physics behind sound waves has led to better sound quality and a wider range of tonal possibilities in musical instruments. Sound waves with frequencies below the human hearing range, known as infrasound, also have practical applications despite being inaudible.
Visual representations of sound, such as waveforms, spectrums, and spectrograms, are used in quantitative sound analysis. Spectrograms, for instance, provide a precise description of a sound file by dividing it into short segments and calculating the spectrum for each segment, revealing variations in frequency content over time. Sound descriptors offer a numerical description of specific aspects of sound, such as sound energy and spectral centroid, which reflects how the brightness of the sound evolves.
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Soundscape and the acoustic environment
Sound, in physics, is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave through a transmission medium such as gas, liquid, or solid. In human physiology and psychology, sound is the reception of such waves and their perception by the brain.
The acoustic environment is the combination of all sounds, whether audible to humans or not, within a given area as modified by the environment. The soundscape is the component of the acoustic environment that can be perceived by humans. It is the collection of sounds that emanate from landscapes and is the auditory link to nature. The study of soundscape is the subject of acoustic ecology or soundscape ecology.
The term soundscape was popularized by R. Murray Schafer, who wrote about soundmarks, or sounds unique to an area, in his 1977 book, "The Soundscape: Our Sonic Environment and the Tuning of the World." Bernie Krause, a naturalist and soundscape ecologist, further defined the sources of sound in terms of their three main components: geophony, biophony, and anthropophony. Geophonic sounds are generated by non-biological natural sources such as wind in the trees, water in a stream, or waves in the ocean. Biophonic sounds are biological, and anthropophonic sounds are human-produced.
The disruption of acoustic environments can result in noise pollution. Soundscape researchers investigate people's attitudes toward soundscapes as a whole and how the entire environment can be changed to be more pleasing to the ear. For example, the negative effects of sound have been widely acknowledged by organizations like the EU and WHO, but the positive effects of nature sounds have received less attention. Soundscape approaches can be used to plan urban and rural environments to take advantage of the positive effects of nature sounds, such as increasing cognitive restoration and feelings of calm.
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Sound in human physiology and psychology
Sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave through a transmission medium such as gas, liquid, or solid. In human physiology and psychology, sound is the reception of such waves and their
The field of psychoacoustics is dedicated to studying the perception of sound by the human auditory system. It is an interdisciplinary field that includes psychology, acoustics, electronic engineering, physics, biology, physiology, and computer science. Hearing is not a purely mechanical phenomenon of wave propagation, but also a sensory and perceptual event. When a person hears something, that something arrives at the ear as a mechanical sound wave traveling through the air, but within the ear, it is transformed into neural action potentials. These nerve pulses then travel to the brain, where they are perceived. The brain utilizes subtle differences in loudness, tone, and timing between the two ears to allow us to localize sound sources.
The inner ear does significant signal processing in converting sound waveforms into neural stimuli, rendering certain differences between waveforms imperceptible. The ear has a nonlinear response to sounds of different intensity levels, and this nonlinear response is called loudness. Sounds that are close in frequency produce phantom beat notes or intermodulation distortion products. The human ear can hear sounds in the range of 20 to 20,000 Hz, with the upper limit decreasing with age.
The perception of sound is complicated and has both physical and psychological components. The physics of sound originates in the pressure changes resulting from the vibration of an object. These changes are perceived by the human outer ear and amplified through the ossicles of the middle ear. The psychology of sound is based on the perception of its characteristics, which starts in the motion of the basilar membrane in the cochlea of the inner ear and proceeds to the cochlear nuclei and the central auditory pathway to reach both hemispheres of the brain.
Music is a human effort to express emotions and has the ability to influence mood, evoke memories, and create feelings. It contributes to communication and conveys information with semantic and emotional elements.
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