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Speed of sound. The speed of sound is the distance travelled per unit of time by a sound wave as it propagates through an elastic medium. More simply, the speed of sound is how fast vibrations travel. At 20 °C (68 °F), the speed of sound in air is about 343 m/s (1,125 ft/s; 1,235 km/h; 767 mph; 667 kn), or 1 km in 2.91 s or one mile in 4.69 s.
Acoustic waves are a type of energy propagation that travels through a medium, such as air, water, or solid objects, by means of adiabatic compression and expansion. Key quantities describing these waves include acoustic pressure, particle velocity, particle displacement, and acoustic intensity. The speed of acoustic waves depends on the medium ...
In air at atmospheric pressure, these represent sound waves with wavelengths of 17 meters (56 ft) to 1.7 centimeters (0.67 in). Sound waves above 20 kHz are known as ultrasound and are not audible to humans. Sound waves below 20 Hz are known as infrasound. Different animal species have varying hearing ranges.
Sound travels as a longitudinal compression wave, causing air molecules to move back and forth along the direction of travel. Within a tube, a standing wave is formed, whose wavelength depends on the length of the tube. At the closed end of the tube, air molecules cannot move much, so this end of the tube is a displacement node in the standing ...
Acoustics is a branch of physics that deals with the study of mechanical waves in gases, liquids, and solids including topics such as vibration, sound, ultrasound and infrasound. A scientist who works in the field of acoustics is an acoustician while someone working in the field of acoustics technology may be called an acoustical engineer.
Human auditory system. Sound localization is the process of determining the location of a sound source. The brain utilizes subtle differences in intensity, spectral, and timing cues to localize sound sources. [3][4][5] Localization can be described in terms of three-dimensional position: the azimuth or horizontal angle, the elevation or ...
Nonlinear acoustics. Nonlinearity in ultrasonic wave propagation through tissue at larger amplitudes. Nonlinear acoustics (NLA) is a branch of physics and acoustics dealing with sound waves of sufficiently large amplitudes. Large amplitudes require using full systems of governing equations of fluid dynamics (for sound waves in liquids and gases ...
Sound waves travel through the ear canal and hit the tympanic membrane, or eardrum. This wave information travels across the air-filled middle ear cavity via a series of delicate bones: the malleus (hammer), incus (anvil) and stapes (stirrup).