Sound

→ The sensation felt by our ears is called sound.

→ Sound is a form of energy which makes us hear.
→ Law of conservation of energy is also applicable to sound.
→ Sound travels in form of wave.

Production of Sound
→ Sound is produced when object vibrates or sound is produced by vibrating objects.
→ The energy required to make an object vibrate and produce sound is provided by some
outside source (like our hand, wind etc.).
→ Example: Sound of our voice is produced by vibration of two vocal cords in our throat.

• Sound can be produced by following methods:

(i) By vibrating string (sitar)

(ii) By vibrating air (flute)
(iii) By vibrating membrane (table, drum)
(iv) By vibrating plates (bicycle bell)
(v) By friction in objects
(vi) By scratching or scrubbing the objects etc.

Propogation of Sound
→ The substance through which sound travels is called a medium.
→ The medium may be solid, liquid or gas.
→ When an object vibrates, then the air particles around it also start vibrating in exactly the

same way and displaced from their stable position.

→ These vibrating air particles exert a force on nearby air particles so they are also displaced
from their rest position and start to vibrate.
→ This process is continued in the medium till sound reaches our ears.
→ The disturbance produced by sound travels through the medium (not the particles of the
medium).
→ Wave is a disturbance which travels through a medium and carries energy.
→ So sound travels in wave form known as mechanical waves

➢ When a body vibrates then it compresses the air surrounding it and form an area of

high density called compression (C).

➢ When vibrating body vibrates back an area of low pressure is formed called
rarefaction (R).
→ Propogation of sound wave is propogation of density change.
Sound needs Medium for Propogation

→ Sound waves are mechanical waves.

→ It needs material medium for propogation like air, water, steel etc.
→ It cannot travel in vacuum.

Characteristics of Sound Wave

The characteristics of sound waves are: wavelength, frequency, amplitude, time period and
velocity.

Wavelength
→ In sound waves the combined length of a compression and an adjacent rarefaction is
called its wavelength.
→ The distance between the centres of two consecutive compressions or two consecutive

rarefactions is also called its wavelength.

→ It is denoted by the Greek letter lamda (λ). Its SI unit is metre.
Frequency
→ No. of complete waves produced in one second or number of vibrations per second is
called frequency.
→ Number of compressions or rarefactions passed in one second is also frequency.
→ Frequency of wave is same as the frequency of the vibrating body which produces the
wave.
• The SI unit of frequency is hertz (Hz). The symbol of frequency is v (nu).

• 1 Hertz: One Hz is equal to 1 vibration per second.

• Bigger unit of frequency is kilohertz kHz = 1000 Hz.
Time Period
→ Time taken to complete one vibration is called time period.
→ Time required to pass two consecutive compressions or rarefactions through a point is
called time period.
• SI unit of time period is second (s). Time period is denoted by T.
• The frequency of a wave is the reciprocal of the time period.
• v = 1/T

Amplitude
→ The maximum displacement of the particle of the medium from their original undisturbed
position is called amplitude of the wave.
• Amplitude is denoted by A and its SI unit is metre (m).
Velocity
• The distance travelled by a wave in one second is called velocity of the wave.
• Its SI unit is metre per second (ms-1).
Velocity = Distance travelled/Time taken

⇒ v = λ/T
(λ is the wavelength of the waves travelled in one time period T)
v = λv (1/T = v)
So, Velocity = Wavelength × Frequency
This is the wave equation.

Characteristics of Sound
Sound has characteristics like pitch, loudness and timbre.

Pitch
→ The pitch of sound depends on the frequency of sound (vibration).
→ It is directly proportional to its frequency. Greater the frequency, higher is the pitch and lesser the
frequency, lower is the pitch.
→ A woman’s voice is shrill having a high pitch while a man’s voice is flat having low pitch.

→ High pitch sound has large number of compressions and rarefactions passing a fixed point per unit
time.

Loudness
→ The loudness depends on the amplitude of the sound wave.
→ Loudness is the measure of the sound energy reaching the ear per sec.
→ Greater the amplitude of sound wave, greater is the energy, louder the sound; short is the
amplitude, less is the energy, soft is the sound.
→ Loudness is measured in decibel ‘dB’.

Timbre (Quality)
→ The timbre of a sound depends on the shape of sound wave produced by it. It is the
characteristic of musical sound.
→ It helps us to distinguish between two sounds of same pitch & loudness.
• Sound of single (same) frequency is called tone while a mixture of different frequencies is
called note.

→ Noise is unpleasant to hear while music is pleasant to hear and it is of good quality.
Example: What is the frequency of sound waving whose time period is 0.05 second?

Speed of Sound in Various Mediums

→ Speed of sound depends on the nature of material through which it travels. It is slowest in
gases, faster in liquids and fastest in solids.
→ Speed of sound increases with the rise in temperature.
→ Speed of sound increases as humidity of air increases.
→ Speed of light is faster than speed of sound.
→ In air, speed of sound is 344 ms-1 at 22ºC.

Sonic Boom
→ Some aircrafts, bullets, rockets etc. have ‘supersonic speed’.

• Supersonic refers to the speed of an object which is greater than the speed of sound and it
produces extremely loud sound waves called ‘shock waves’ in air.
→ Sonic boom is an explosive noise caused by shock waves.
→ It emits tremendous sound energy which can shatter the glass panes of windows.

Reflection of Sound
→ Like light, sound also bounce back when it falls on a hard surface. It is called reflection of
sound.
• The laws of reflection of light are obeyed during reflection of sound.
(i) The incident sound wave, the reflected sound wave and normal at the point of incidence lie
in the same plane.
(ii) Angle of reflection of sound is always equal to the angle of incidence of sound.

Echo
• The repetition of sound caused by the reflection of sound waves is called an echo.
→ We can hear echo when there is a time gap of 0.1 second in original sound and echo
(reflected sound).
→ Echo is produced when sound reflected from a hard surface (i.e. brick wall, mountain etc.)

as soft surface tends to absorb sound.

→ Rolling of thunder is due to multiple reflection of sound of thunder from a number of
reflecting surfaces such as clouds and the earth.

Reverberation
→ The persistence of sound in a big hall due to repeated reflection of sound from the walls,
ceiling and floor of the hall is called reverberation.
→ If reverberation is too long, sound becomes blurred, distorted and confusing due to
overlapping of different sound.
Methods to reduce reverberation in big halls or auditoriums
→ Panels made of felt or compressed fibre board are put on walls and ceiling to absorb

sound.
→ Heavy curtains are put on doors and windows.
→ Carpets are put on the floor.
→ Seats are made of material having sound absorbing properties.
Applications of Reflection of Sound
(i) Megaphone, loudspeakers, bulb horns and trumpets, shehnai etc. are designed to send
sound in a particular direction without spreading all around.
(ii) Stethoscope
(iii) Sound Board

Range of Hearing
(i) Range of hearing in human is 20 Hz to 20000 Hz.
→ Children younger than 5 years and dogs can hear upto 25 KHz.
(ii) The sounds of frequencies lower than 20 Hz are known as ‘infrasonic sounds.
→ A vibrating simple pendulum produces infrasonic sounds.
→ Rhinoceroses communicate each other using frequencies as low as 5 Hz.

→ Elephants and whales produce infrasonic waves.

→ Earthquakes produces infrasonic waves (before shock waves)
which some animals can hear and get disturbed.
(iii) The sounds of frequencies higher than 20 KHz are known as ‘ultrasonic waves.
→ Dogs, dolphins, bats and rats can hear ultrasonic sounds.
→ Bats and rats can produce ultrasonic sounds.

Applications of Ultrasound
(i) It is used to detect cracks in metal blocks in industries without damaging them.
(ii) It is used in industries to clean ‘hard to reach’ parts of objects such as spiral tubes, odd
shaped machines etc.

(iii) It is used to investigate the internal organs of human body such as liver, gall bladder,
kidneys, uterus and heart.
(iv) Ecocardiography: These waves are used to reflect the action of heart and its images are
formed. This technique is called echocardiography.
(v) Ultrasonography: The technique of obtaining pictures of internal organs of the body by
using echoes of ultrasound waves is called ultrasonography.
(vi) Ultrasound is used to split tiny stones in kidneys into fine grains.

SONAR
→ The word ‘SONAR’ stands for ‘Sound Navigation and Ranging’.
→ SONAR is a device which is used to find distance, direction and speed of underwater

objects.
→ SONAR consists of a transmitter and a receptor or detector and installed at the bottom of a
ship.
→ The transmitter produces and transmits ultrasonic waves.
→ These waves travel through water and after striking the objects on the bottom of sea, are
reflected back and received by detector.

→ These reflected waves are converted into electric signals by detector.

→ The sonar device measures the time taken by ultrasound waves to travel from ship to
bottom of sea and back to ship.
→ Half of this time gives the time taken by the ultrasound waves from ship to bottom.
→ The sonar is used to find the depth of sea, to locate underwater hills, valleys, submarines,
icebergs and sunken ships etc.
→ Bats fly in the dark night by emitting high pitched ultrasound waves which are reflected
from the obstacle or prey and returned to bats ear.

Structure of Human Ear

→ The ear consists of three parts: outer ear, middle ear and inner ear.
→ The ears are the sense organs which help us in hearing sound.

→ The outer ear is called pinna. It collects the sound from surroundings.
→ This sound passes through the auditory canal.
→ At the end of auditory canal, is a thin elastic membrane called ear drum or tympanic
membrane.
→ The middle ear contains of three bones: hammer, anvil and stirrup linked with one another.
Free end of hammer touches ear drum and that of stirrup linked with membrane of oval
window of inner ear.
→ The lower part of middle ear has a narrow ‘Eustachian tube’.

→ The inner ear has a coiled tube called cochlea, which is connected with oval window.
Cochlea is filled with a liquid containing nerve cells.
→ Other side of cochlea is connected to auditory nerve which goes to brain.
Working of Human ear
Pinna → Ear canal → Ear drum → Hammer → Anvil → Stirrup → Oval window → Cochlea →
Auditory nerve → Brain
→ When compression of sound wave strikes the ear drum, the pressure on the outside of ear
drum increases and pushes the ear drum inwards.

→ While during rarefaction ear drum moves outwards. Thus, ear drum starts vibrating back
and forth.
→ These vibrations are increased by three bones and middle ear transmits these amplified
pressure variations received from sound waves to inner ear.
→ In the inner ear the pressure variations are turned into electric signals by the cochlea.
→ These electric signals are sent to the brain via auditory nerve and the brain interprets them
as sound.

Hearing Aid
→ It is battery operated electronic device used by persons who are hard of hearing.
→ Microphone convert sound into electrical signals, then those are amplified by amplifier.

Amplified signals are sent to the speaker of hearing aid. The speaker converts the amplified
signal to sound and sends to ear for clear hearing.