Sound Waves
1. A wave's period is 2 seconds. Find its frequency.
2. What is the frequency in hertz that corresponds to
a period of 5s?
3. A young girl is on a swing that completes 20.0
cycles in 25 seconds. What is the frequency?
4. A clock clicks 88 times in 22 seconds. Calculate the
frequency of the
clock.
5. A nurse counts 76 heartbeats in one minute. What
is the frequency of the heart’s oscillations?
A sound wave, like any other wave, is introduced into a
medium by a vibrating object. The vibrating object is the
source of the disturbance that moves through the medium.
The vibrating object that creates the disturbance could be
the vocal cords of a person, the vibrating string and sound
board of a guitar or violin, the vibrating tines of a tuning
fork, or the vibrating diaphragm of a radio speaker.
Regardless of what vibrating object is creating the sound
wave, the particles of the medium through which the sound
moves is vibrating in a back and forth motion at a
given frequency.
The frequency of a wave refers to how often the
particles of the medium vibrate when a wave
passes through the medium. The frequency of a
wave is measured as the number of complete
back-and-forth vibrations of a particle of the
medium per unit of time.
If a particle of air undergoes 1000
longitudinal vibrations in 2
seconds, then the frequency of the
wave would be 500 vibrations per
second. A commonly used unit for
frequency is the Hertz (abbreviated
Hz), where
1 Hertz = 1 vibration/second
The ears of a human (and other animals) are sensitive detectors
capable of detecting the fluctuations in air pressure that impinge
upon the eardrum. It is sufficient to say that the human ear is
capable of detecting sound waves with a wide range of
frequencies, ranging between approximately 20 Hz to 20 000 Hz.
Any sound with a frequency below the audible range of hearing
(i.e., less than 20 Hz) is known as an infrasound and any sound
with a frequency above the audible range of hearing (i.e., more
than 20 000 Hz) is known as an ultrasound. Humans are not
alone in their ability to detect a wide range of frequencies.
The sensation of a frequency is commonly
referred to as the pitch of a sound. A high pitch
sound corresponds to a high frequency sound
wave and a low pitch sound corresponds to a
low frequency sound wave.
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