WAVES AND SOUND
Whether playing a guitar, listening to a radio, clocking the speed of a thrown baseball, or having a kidney stone shattered, we are using a wave of some kind. The two most used senses-sight and hearing – are highly developed wave –detection mechanisms. Technology has given us numerous devices that produce or detect waves that we cannot sense (microwaves, ultrasound, x-rays).
Waves involve vibrations or oscillations of some kind.
We define a wave as a traveling disturbance which consists of coordinated vibrations that transmit energy with no net movement of matter. The substance through which such waves travel is called the medium of the wave.
Many waves-sound, water ripples, waves on a rope –require a material medium. They cannot exist in a vacuum. On the other hand, light, radio waves, microwaves and x-rays can travel through a vacuum because they do not require a medium for their propagation.
A wave can be short and fleeting, called a wave pulse, or steady and repeating, called a continuous wave. The sound of a bursting balloon, light from a camera flash are examples of wave pulses. The sound from a tuning fork and light from the Sun are example of continuous wave.
Waves can also be classified according to the orientation of the wave oscillations.
A wave in which the oscillations are perpendicular to the direction the wave travels is called a transverse wave. Example: waves on a rope.
A wave in which the oscillations are along the direction the wave travels is called a longitudinal wave. Example: sound in air.
Many waves are neither purely longitudinal or purely transverse.
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The speed of a wave is the rate of movement of the disturbance (Do not confuse this with the speed of individual particles as they oscillate). For a given type of wave, the speed is determined by the properties of the medium.
For example, the speed of waves on a stretched rope can be computed by using
the force F that must be exerted to keep it stretched and its
linear mass density d , which equals its mass m divided by its length l.
In particular, v = speed of wave = (F/d)(1/2).
Increasing this force, also called tension will cause the waves to move faster.
This is how stringed instruments such as guitars and pianos are tuned.
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The speed of sound in air or any other gas depends on the ratio of the pressure of the gas to the density of the gas. But for each gas, this ratio depends only on the temperature. In particular, the speed of sound v in a gas is proportional to the square root of the Kelvin temperature T is:
V = (20.1) ( T)(1/2)
In addition to wave speed, there are three other important parameters of a
continuous wave that can be measured: amplitude, wavelength and frequency.
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