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An acoustic wave is a mechanical wave that transmits energy through the movements of atoms and molecules. Acoustic waves transmit through fluids in a longitudinal manner (movement of particles are parallel to the direction of propagation of the wave); in contrast to electromagnetic waves that transmit in transverse manner (movement of particles at a right angle to the direction of propagation ...
Infrasound is sound waves with frequencies lower than 20 Hz. Although sounds of such low frequency are too low for humans to hear as a pitch, these sound are heard as discrete pulses (like the 'popping' sound of an idling motorcycle). Whales, elephants and other animals can detect infrasound and use it to communicate.
Historically, loudness was measured using an ear-balancing method with an audiometer in which the amplitude of a sine wave was adjusted by the user to equal the perceived loudness of the sound being evaluated. [6] Contemporary standards for measurement of loudness are based on the summation of energy in critical bands. [7]
This falls within the domain of physical acoustics. In fluids, sound propagates primarily as a pressure wave. In solids, mechanical waves can take many forms including longitudinal waves, transverse waves and surface waves. Acoustics looks first at the pressure levels and frequencies in the sound wave and how the wave interacts with the ...
A sound wave propagates through a material as a localized pressure change. Increasing the pressure of a gas or fluid increases its local temperature. The local speed of sound in a compressible material increases with temperature; as a result, the wave travels faster during the high pressure phase of the oscillation than during the lower pressure phase.
It is the property of sound that most determines pitch. [1] The generally accepted standard hearing range for humans is 20 to 20,000 Hz. [2] [3] [4] In air at atmospheric pressure, these represent sound waves with wavelengths of 17 metres (56 ft) to 1.7 centimetres (0.67 in).
Although pitch retrieval mechanisms in the auditory system are still a matter of debate, [76] [115] TFS n information may be used to retrieve the pitch of low-frequency pure tones [75] and estimate the individual frequencies of the low-numbered (ca. 1st-8th) harmonics of a complex sound, [116] frequencies from which the fundamental frequency of ...
The frequency of a sound is defined as the number of repetitions of its waveform per second, and is measured in hertz; frequency is inversely proportional to wavelength (in a medium of uniform propagation velocity, such as sound in air). The wavelength of a sound is the distance between any two consecutive matching points on the waveform.