What Exactly is a Sound Wave?
What Exactly is a Sound Wave?
A wave of compression and rarefaction that travels through a medium, is called a sound wave. Sound waves occur all the time in the environment around you, whether you listen to music, watch movies, or talk with someone. Every time you make a noise or hear a noise, there are sound waves involved. Sound waves are classified as longitudinal waves.
Earthquakes and Sound
Have you ever been in an earthquake? If you have, you probably have heard crashing, or rumbling either coming from the buildings or objects around you. When an earthquake occurs, you'll immediately begin to feel the shaking of the ground, and hear different kinds of noises around you. These noises are producing sound waves that reflect off of nearby objects and reach your ear. Your eardrum then vibrates, allowing you to hear the noise.
The larger the earthquake is, the more noise you'll probably hear. Due to more rumbling and shaking from the result of the earthquake, there will be lots of noise meaning there will be LOTS of sound waves occurring and hitting your ears. In California, there are hundreds even thousands of buildings where earthquakes occur, so you can probably imagine all the different noises occurring during the time of an earthquake.
Pitch and Frequency
Sound waves travel differently depending on the frequency and pitch of the wave traveling. For example, a very high pitched wave will travel more condensed because each wave occurs more frequent, while a pitch with a low frequency will travel less condensed because the the wave occurs less frequent. Depending on how much energy the sound wave contains also results in how loud the sound will be. The more energy in the wave means that it will produce a loud sound and not so much energy will produce a quieter noise.
A wave of compression and rarefaction that travels through a medium, is called a sound wave. Sound waves occur all the time in the environment around you, whether you listen to music, watch movies, or talk with someone. Every time you make a noise or hear a noise, there are sound waves involved. Sound waves are classified as longitudinal waves.
Earthquakes and Sound
Have you ever been in an earthquake? If you have, you probably have heard crashing, or rumbling either coming from the buildings or objects around you. When an earthquake occurs, you'll immediately begin to feel the shaking of the ground, and hear different kinds of noises around you. These noises are producing sound waves that reflect off of nearby objects and reach your ear. Your eardrum then vibrates, allowing you to hear the noise.
The larger the earthquake is, the more noise you'll probably hear. Due to more rumbling and shaking from the result of the earthquake, there will be lots of noise meaning there will be LOTS of sound waves occurring and hitting your ears. In California, there are hundreds even thousands of buildings where earthquakes occur, so you can probably imagine all the different noises occurring during the time of an earthquake.
Pitch and Frequency
Sound waves travel differently depending on the frequency and pitch of the wave traveling. For example, a very high pitched wave will travel more condensed because each wave occurs more frequent, while a pitch with a low frequency will travel less condensed because the the wave occurs less frequent. Depending on how much energy the sound wave contains also results in how loud the sound will be. The more energy in the wave means that it will produce a loud sound and not so much energy will produce a quieter noise.
Hertz (Hz)
What exactly are Hertz? Hertz are the unit of frequency, equal to one cycle of a wave per second. Humans are only able to hear between 20Hz to 20,000Hz, anything higher than 20,000Hz or lower than 20Hz cannot be heard. Elephants and Hippos are able to hear under 20Hz, also known as infrasound. Bats, whales, dogs, and cats are able to hear over 20,000Hz, also known as ultrasound. For extra information on Hertz, click here.
P Waves and S waves
A P wave is a seismic body wave that shakes the ground back and forth in the same direction and the opposite direction as the direction the wave is moving. P waves look like they have many different points of compression. For an example, look to the image below.
An S wave is a bit different from a P wave. An S wave, or "shear wave", is a seismic body wave that shakes the ground back and forth perpendicular to the direction the wave is moving. S waves literally look like waves that go up and down sort of like an ocean wave, however they are moving that fast.
Why are these important to sound? The larger the earthquake is, the bigger P waves or S waves will be. If, for example, a P wave is shaking the ground strongly, you will hear rumbling.
An S wave is a bit different from a P wave. An S wave, or "shear wave", is a seismic body wave that shakes the ground back and forth perpendicular to the direction the wave is moving. S waves literally look like waves that go up and down sort of like an ocean wave, however they are moving that fast.
Why are these important to sound? The larger the earthquake is, the bigger P waves or S waves will be. If, for example, a P wave is shaking the ground strongly, you will hear rumbling.
For more reliable information on sound waves, click on the button below!
Sources:
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/learn/glossary/?term=P%20wave
http://www.fi.edu/fellows/fellow2/apr99/soundvib.html
http://www.physicsclassroom.com/class/sound/u11l2a.cfm
http://www.daviddarling.info/images/P_wave.jpg
http://www.allshookup.org/quakes/swave.jpg
http://www.equipmentexplained.com/images/physics_images/med_imaging_images/us_sound_images/sound_range.gif
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/learn/glossary/?term=P%20wave
http://www.fi.edu/fellows/fellow2/apr99/soundvib.html
http://www.physicsclassroom.com/class/sound/u11l2a.cfm
http://www.daviddarling.info/images/P_wave.jpg
http://www.allshookup.org/quakes/swave.jpg
http://www.equipmentexplained.com/images/physics_images/med_imaging_images/us_sound_images/sound_range.gif