1

Gas Dynamics
Sound Applications

Name: Mohamed Mostafa Elsaid Salem

Sec: 10
 2

No: 460
Introduction:
In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as a
typically audible mechanical wave of pressure and
displacement, through a medium such as air or
water. In physiology and psychology, sound is the
reception of such waves and their perception by the
brain.

Main Applications:
Medicine
Industry
Military
Consumer Electronics
New Applications
 3

Medicine:
One of the most important
uses of sound in medicine is
the ultrasound tests. These
tests are non-invasive
diagnostic imaging
techniques which use high-
frequency sound waves and
a computer to create images
of blood vessels, tissues, and organs.
Ultrasounds are used to view internal organs as
they function, and to assess blood flow through
various vessels. These tests are common in
pregnant women to detect many structural and
functional abnormalities in a fetus. Ultrasounds
may also aid in the detection of heart disease,
tumors, gall stones, and other disorders.
 4

Industry:

Ultrasound is also used by many industries for a

variety of applications, such as measuring the
wall thickness of metal or plastic pipes.
Structural engineers use ultrasound to evaluate
the status of buildings and other structures after
significant seismic events. Geophysicists use
sound when exploring for minerals and
petroleum and in order to locate possible mineral
or oil bearing rock formations.
The Military:
One of the main applications of sound in the
military is the Sonar. The sonar is a device
capable of locating enemy ships and underwater
obstacles through the use of ultrasound. The
sonar operates with acoustic waves in the same
way that radar and radio direction-finding
equipment operate with electromagnetic waves,
including use of the Doppler Effect, radial
component of velocity measurement, and
triangulation.
 5

Doppler Effect:

The Doppler Effect is an interesting

phenomenon that occurs when an object
producing sound is moved relatively to the
listener.
Consider the following: When a car blaring its
horn is behind you, the pitch is higher as it is
approaching, and becomes lower as it is moving
away. This is only noticeable if the object is
moving at a fairly high speed, although it is still
theoretically present at any speed.

When an object is moving away from the

listener, the sound waves are stretched over a
further distance meaning they happen less often.
The wavelength ends up being greater so the
frequency is less and the pitch is lower. When an
object is moving towards the listener, the waves
are compressed over a small distance making a
very small wavelength and therefore a large
frequency and high pitch. Since the pitch of the
sound depends on the frequency of the waves,
 6

the pitch increases when the object is moving

towards the listener.

Consumer Electronics:
The scientific principles of sound are applied in
a variety of consumer electronic goods. It is
difficult to imagine life without the benefit of
sound technology. We use sound principles in
our cellular phone, in motion pictures, in our
regular telephone, in C.D.s and mp3 files, when
we watch television, in video cameras, in
microphones.

New Applications:

Physicists in France have developed a new form

of "touch-screen" technology that relies on
detecting the sound waves that are produced
when a solid object is tapped by a finger (Appl.
Phys. Lett. 87 204104). The technology could be
used to make virtual keyboards and intelligent
 7

shop windows, and may also have applications

in security and education.
When the surface of a solid object is tapped,
sound waves reverberate through it. Different
points on the surface produce slightly different
sounds because the acoustic waves travel along
different paths. Each point on the surface
therefore has a unique acoustic "signature".
Now, Ros Kiri Ing and Nicolas Quieffin of
Sensitive Object, a new company based near
Paris, together with Stefan Catheline and
Mathias Fink of the University of Paris VII,
have shown that this signature could be
exploited in a new variation on traditional touch
screens.
The French physicists demonstrated their
technique in a glass plate with an area of 40 cm
by 30 cm and a thickness of 5 mm. They tapped
the plate at various positions and detected the
resulting sound waves with a simple sensor
connected to a personal computer. The new
technique relies on a process called acoustic
time-reversal that allows sounds waves to be
reversed and sent back to their origin.
 8

However, rather than reversing the sound waves,

the new technique relies on using similar ideas
to calculate where the sound came from in the
first place. In this way different positions on the
surface can be related to different actions: for
instance, a tap at one position might switch on a
light, while a tap at a different position could
turn on a CD player.
The new technology is better than existing touch
screens in several ways says Catheline. First,
there is no need to build complicated sensor
devices into the object. Moreover, the approach
also works for objects that are not flat. "One of
our experiments is on a globe," he says. "When a
country is touched, information related to that
country is displayed on a computer screen."
The team now plans to make the technology
more robust so that it works in noisy
environments and at different temperatures, and
is also exploring the possibility of more than one
person using it at the same time.