Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Rarefaction is the reduction of an item's density, the opposite of compression. [1] Like compression, which can travel in waves (sound waves, for instance), rarefaction waves also exist in nature. A common rarefaction wave is the area of low relative pressure following a shock wave (see picture).
Longitudinal sound waves are waves of alternating pressure deviations from the equilibrium pressure, causing local regions of compression and rarefaction, while transverse waves (in solids) are waves of alternating shear stress at right angle to the direction of propagation.
A wave along the length of a stretched Slinky toy, where the distance between coils increases and decreases, is a good visualization. Real-world examples include sound waves (vibrations in pressure, a particle of displacement, and particle velocity propagated in an elastic medium) and seismic P waves (created by earthquakes and explosions).
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.
An acoustic short circuit is a phenomenon in which sound waves interfere in such a way that both waves are canceled out.This occurs when the peak of one wave aligns with the trough of another, and the compressions and rarefactions of each wave neutralize each other. [1]
Sound is a pressure wave, which consists of alternating periods of compression and rarefaction. A noise-cancellation speaker emits a sound wave with the same amplitude but with an inverted phase (also known as antiphase) relative to the original sound.
Gasses and liquids generally exhibit less hysteresis than solid materials (e.g., sound waves cause adiabatic compression and rarefaction) and behave in a, mostly, Newtonian way. Combined, the resistive and reactive properties of an acoustic medium form the acoustic impedance. The behaviour of sound waves encountering a different medium is ...
In physics, magnetosonic waves, also known as magnetoacoustic waves, are low-frequency compressive waves driven by mutual interaction between an electrically conducting fluid and a magnetic field. They are associated with compression and rarefaction of both the fluid and the magnetic field, as well as with an effective tension that acts to ...