The characteristic sound of any instrument is referred to as the quality of that sound. "A form of energy, produced by rapidly vibrating objects, that can be heard by the human ear is called sound."
From our earliest years, we become accustomed to a great variety of sounds: our mother's voice, a telephone ringing, a kitten purring, a piano being played, a siren, a jet engine roaring, a rifle shot. Some of these sounds are pleasant to the ear and some are not. Sounds are a form of energy produced by rapidly vibrating objects. We hear sounds because this energy stimulates the auditory nerve in the human ear. In the 18th century, philosophers and scientists debated the question, "If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, will there be sound ?" "Of course there will be," said the scientists, "because the crash of the tree is a vibrating source that sends out sound waves through the ground and the air." To them, sound was the motion of the particles in a medium caused by a vibrating object. "Of course not," said the philosophers, "because no observer is present." To them, sound was a personal sensation that existed only in the mind of the observer. This debate could never be resolved because one group was defining sound objectively in terms of its cause, and the other was defining it subjectively in terms of its effects on the human ear and brain. In physics, we study the transmission of sound objectively, leaving the subjective interpretation of the effects of sound on the human ear and brain to the philosophers.
Sound plays an important role in our life. It helps us to communicate with one another. We hear a variety of sounds in our surroundings. In the music room of your school you hear the sounds made by musical instruments like flute, tabla, harmonium, etc. (see figure)
We can describe the sound which we hear in many ways. For example, lions roar, babies cry, birds chirp, corks pop, etc. All these types of sounds originate from vibrating objects. But, some vibrations are visible some are not. If you pluck a guitar string (see figure) or strike a low-frequency tuning fork (see figure), you can see the actual vibrations of the object. Similarly, if you watch the low-frequency woofer of a loudspeaker system, you can see it vibrating.
There are many vibrations that are not visible, however. When you speak, for instance, parts of your throat vibrate. When you make a whistling sound by blowing over an empty pop bottle, the air molecules in the bottle vibrate to produce sound.
A tuning fork is a two-pronged steel fork which produces sound when struck. A tuning fork makes a sound as the prongs of the fork vibrate in the air.
The Jal tarang is one of the most rarely heard instruments today. It is one of the oldest instrument in the world. It consists of china bowls filled with water and struck by means of two cane sticks.
Earlier, since china clay bowls weren't available, artists used to play this instrument with metal bowls. Each bowl can be tuned to the desired frequency by varying the quantity of water in it. These bowls are placed in a semi - circular arrangement around the player and played. Ancient texts mention instruments similar to this. Indian and Greek texts described such instruments. The Jal tarang has a pleasant characteristic tone. The player can produce on it, classical Indian ragas and light melodies as well. (see figure)
An artist playing on Jal tarang Table to show some musical instruments and their vibrating parts
An Ektara consists of a single stretched string which produces sound when it is vibrated using a bow
As a particle vibrates, it repeats the same motion in equal time intervals. The distance in either direction from the mean position (or rest position) to maximum displacement is called its amplitude. (see figure)
Q. Why do you hear the sound of a water fall?
Explanation: When water falls from a certain height in a water fall, the vibrating water droplets produce sound that travels through air. This sound is heard by us when it reaches our ears. Sound of a water fall is a natural sound. Other natural sounds include animal sounds, from the chirping of crickets to the vocalizations of mammals, the sound of rain falling on the ground or on water, a rushing river, waves lapping on a shoreline, thunder, the crack of large pieces of ice shearing from a glacier or iceberg, and the crackle of a forest fire. Water and wind sounds are often heard in combination in nature. When we pluck the string of an instrument, like the sitar, the sound that we hear is not only that of the string.
Q. What do you understand by the term vibration or oscillation? Give some examples of vibrations you see in your daily life.
Explanation: The vibration (or oscillation) of an object is a cycle or a motion that is repeated over and over with the same time interval each time. Some examples of vibrations or oscillations we see in our daily life are : (1) A child swinging on a swing. (2) A simple pendulum oscillating about its mean position. (3) An oscillating spring that supports a vehicle.
Consider what happens to the surface of a pond when you drop a pebble into the water. The disturbance created by the pebble generates water waves that travel away from the disturbance (see figure). If you examine the motion of a leaf floating near the disturbance, you would see that the leaf moves up and down and back and forth about its original position. However, the leaf does not undergo any net displacement from the motion of the waves. The leaf's motion indicates the motion of the particles in the water. The water molecules move locally, like the leaf does, but they do not travel across the pond. That is, the water wave moves from one place to another, but the water and hence the leaf itself is not carried away with it.
Ripple waves in a pond start with a disturbance at some point in the water. This disturbance causes water on the surface near that point to move, which in turn causes points farther away to move. In this way, the waves travel outwards in a circular pattern away from the original disturbance.
In this example, the water in the pond is the medium through which the disturbance travels. Particles in the medium in this case are water molecules which move in vertical circles as waves pass. Note that the medium does not actually travel with the waves. After the waves have passed, the water returns to its original position. Waves that require a material medium are called mechanical waves. Not all wave propagation requires a medium. Electromagnetic waves, such as visible light, radio waves, microwaves, and X rays, can also travel through a vacuum.
In sound waves, the vibrations of particles of the medium through which it travels are parallel to the direction of travel of the wave. Thus, we can say that sound waves are longitudinal waves.
Waves of almost every kind require a material medium in which they travel. Sound waves, for example, cannot travel through outer space, because space is very nearly a vacuum. In order for sound waves to travel, they must have a medium such as air or water. This means sound requires a medium to travel in.
Some school laboratories have a demonstration where a bell rings inside a jar. The experimental setup is shown in figure. As the air is pumped out of the jar, the sound gradually disappears. When the air is returned to the jar, the sound returns. Thus, in order for sound to be transmitted, a medium must be present.
Sound waves propagate in three dimensions
Sound waves travel away from a vibrating source in all three dimensions. When a musician plays a musical instrument in the middle of a room, the resulting sound can be heard throughout the room because the sound waves spread out in all directions.
Dolphins, bats, whales and orca whales rely on the production and reflection of sound to navigate, communicate, and hunt in dark and murky waters. The location of an object using reflected sound is called echolocation. Both animals produce clicks, whistles, and other sounds that vary in intensity, frequency, and pattern. Lower frequency sounds ( ) probably function mainly for social communication, while higher frequencies ( ) are probably used for echolocation. Most bats use echolocation for navigation in the dark and for finding food. The bat can identify an object by the echo and can even tell the size, shape, and texture of a small insect. If the bat detects a prey, it will generally fly towards the source of the echo, continuously emitting high frequency pulses until it reaches its target and scoops the insect up into its wing membranes and then into its mouth.
In humans, the sound is produced by the voice box or the larynx. Put your fingers on the throat and find a hard bump that seems to move when you swallow. This part of the body is known as the voice box. It is at the upper end of the windpipe. Two vocal cords are stretched across the voice box or larynx in such a way that it leaves a narrow slit between them for the passage of air (see figure).
When the lungs force air through the slit, the vocal cords vibrate, producing sound. The sound is amplified and modified by the group of parts collectively called the resonators. They are the pharynx, mouth and nasal cavity. Muscles attached to the vocal cords can make the cords tight or loose. When the vocal cords are tight and thin, the type or quality of voice is different from that when they are loose and thick. Greater tension in the vocal cords and higher air pressure create vibrations at higher frequencies.
The human ear consists of three sections: the outer ear, the middle ear, and the inner ear (see figure). The outer ear consists of the external ear (pinna) and the auditory canal. The external ear is shaped to collect sounds, which then travel down the auditory canal to the eardrum (see figure). The audible hearing range of a healthy young adult is approximately 20 to . The middle ear is separated from the outer ear by the eardrum, a very tough, tightly stretched membrane less than 0.1 mm thick. The eardrum is forced to vibrate by sound coming down the ear canal. The vibration of the eardrum has the same frequency as the source of the sound waves.
Attached to the inside of the eardrum are three small interlocking bones: the hammer (malleus), the anvil (incus) and the stirrup (stapes). These bones transmit the vibrations of the eardrum to the inner ear, mechanically magnifying the pressure variations by a factor of 18. The stirrup transmits the eardrum vibrations to the threshold of the inner ear at the oval window. The vibrations set up pressure waves in the fluid that fills the inner ear's cochlea. The cochlea is a snail-shaped organ approximately 3.0 cm long, divided into two equal sections by a partition for most of its length. Waves are transmitted down one side of the cochlea, around the end of the partition, and back almost to the point of origin. As these waves move, they cause approximately 23,000 microscopic hairs to vibrate. Each hair is connected to a cell that converts the mechanical motion of the hair into an electrical signal, which in turn is transmitted to the brain by the auditory nerve.
Q. Is it correct to say that in every case, without exception, any radio wave travels faster than any sound wave?
Explanation: Yes. This is because any radio wave is an electromagnetic wave like light, thus it travels with the speed of light. The speed of light or radio wave in air is about and speed of sound is about which is approximately one million time smaller than the speed of a radio wave.
The number of oscillations (or cycles) that are taking place per second is called the frequency ( ) of a vibrating body. The SI unit used to measure frequency is the hertz ( Hz ), named after Heinrich Hertz (1857-1894), a German scientist who first produced electromagnetic waves in the laboratory. Time period of a vibrating particle The time period ( T ) of a vibrating particle is the time taken to complete one cycle or oscillation. It is measured in seconds.
Frequency, or or Time period, or Also, Frequency
Q. A mass hung from a spring vibrates times in s. Calculate: (a) the frequency (b) the period of the vibration.
Q. The frequency of a wave is . Calculate the time period. Solution: Given, ? We know that, or
Q. Calculate the period in seconds of each of these motions (a) a pulse beats 25 times in 15 s (b) a fan motor turns at (revolutions per minute) Solution: (a) Given, no. of cycles ; time taken We know that, (b) Given, no. of cycles ; time taken . cycles second We know that, or or
The ears of most young people respond to sound frequencies of between 20 Hz and . The sounds of frequencies between 20 Hz and 20,000 Hz that can be detected by the human ear is called audible sounds. The sounds of frequencies less than about 20 Hz and those higher than cannot be detected by the human ear. Such sounds are called inaudible sounds.
Elephants use infrasonic sound waves to communicate with one another. Their large ears enable them to detect these low-frequency sound waves, which have relatively long wavelengths. Elephants can effectively communicate in this way, even when they are separated by many kilometers.
Q. A metallic blade fixed in a wall is made to vibrate at its free end. The vibrations of the blade gradually decrease and finally stop after some time. Why?
Explanation: The vibrations of the blade gradually decrease after some time due to the friction offered by the air resistance and they finally get stopped. (see figure)
Loudness of sound coming from various sources
Human ear is sensitive to the sound intensity (loudness) ranging from 0-180 dB.
We hear different types of sounds around us. Some sounds are pleasing while some sounds cause discomfort to us. Suppose construction work is going on in your neighborhood. The sounds coming from the construction site are not pleasing. Similarly, we do not enjoy the sounds produced by horns of buses and trucks. Such unpleasant sounds are called noise. In a classroom, if all the students speak together, the sound produced will be a noise. Noise originates from a source where the frequencies are constantly changing in a random manner. Displayed on an oscilloscope, noise does not have a constant waveform [see figure (a)].
On the other hand you enjoy sounds from musical instruments. Musical sound is one which is pleasing to the ear. Sound produced by a harmonium is a musical sound. The string of a sitar also gives out a musical sound. A musical note originates from a source vibrating in a uniform manner with one or more constant frequencies. Music is the combination of musical notes. With an oscilloscope, music is displayed as a constant waveform [see figure (b)].
'Noise' is a by-product of industrialisation and modern civilisation. It is the state of undesirable loud sounds of different kinds producing in the atmosphere due to the various modern civilisation activities like running of vehicles, industrial processes, loud speakers, etc.
Presence of excessive or unwanted sounds in the environment is called noise pollution.
The following factors should be kept in view for controlling noise pollution:
Source of noise pollution
Path of noise
Receptive organs: Using ear mufflers or cotton plugs.
The total hearing impairment is rare, and it is usually from birth itself. Partial disability is generally the result of a disease, injury or age. Children with impaired hearing need special care. By learning sign language, such children can communicate effectively. Because speech develops as the direct result of hearing, a child with a hearing loss may have defective speech also.
A hearing aid is an electronic device that amplifies sounds for people with hearing impairments. Hearing aids have the same basic components as any home entertainment system, except all the components are miniaturised and the amplified sound is delivered directly to the ear. The microphone, amplifier, miniature receiver (speaker), and battery are enclosed in a shell, which is worn behind or within the ear. A small tube directs the amplified sound from the receiver into the ear canal.
(Session 2025 - 26)