©Onikienko E. V.

Methodical supply to the Self-Study option on Biophysics

SELF-STUDY 2.

Conceptual Questions
1. How do sound vibrations of atoms differ from thermal motion?
2. When a sound wave passes from air into water, do you expect the frequency or wavelength
to change?
3. Why do ultrasound waves produce images of objects inside the body more effectively
than audible sound waves do?
4. Does the absorption of ultrasound increase or decrease with increasing frequency?
5. Why is it possible to use ultrasound both to observe a fetus in the womb and also to destroy
tumors in the body?
6. Would fluid in the ear increase or decrease the acoustic impedance of the ear?
7. At which end of the basilar membrane in the ear do low frequencies dominate?
8. Suppose you read that 210-dB ultrasound is being used to pulverize cancerous tumors.
The corresponding intensity in watts per meter squared seems unreasonably high
(105 𝑊/𝑚2 ). What is a possible explanation?
 ©Onikienko E. V. Methodical supply to the Self-Study option on Biophysics

Problems
1. When responding to sound, the human eardrum vibrates about its equilibrium position.
Suppose an eardrum is vibrating with an amplitude of 6.3 × 10−7 m and a maximum speed
of 2.9 × 10−3 m/s. (a) What is the frequency (in Hz) of the eardrum’s vibration? (b) What
is the maximum acceleration of the eardrum?
2. The area of a typical eardrum is about 5.00 × 10−5 𝑚2 . (a) Calculate the average sound
power incident on an eardrum at the threshold of pain, which corresponds to an intensity
of 1.00 𝑊/𝑚2 . (b) How much energy is transferred to the eardrum exposed to this sound
for 1.00 min?
3. In the clinical use of ultrasound, transducers are always coupled to the skin by a thin layer
of gel or oil, replacing the air that would otherwise exist between the transducer and the
skin. (a) Calculate the intensity reflection coefficient between transducer material and air.
(b) Calculate the intensity reflection coefficient between transducer material and gel
(assume that its acoustic impedance is identical to that of water). (c) Explain why the gel
is used.
4. The time delay between transmission and the arrival of the reflected wave of a signal using
ultrasound traveling through a piece of fat tissue was 0.13 ms. At what depth did this
reflection occur?
5. (a) How far apart are two layers of tissue that produce echoes having round-trip times (used
to measure distances) that differ by 0.750 𝜇𝑠? (b) What minimum frequency must the
ultrasound have to see detail this small?
6. The human ear canal is approximately 2.5 cm long. It is open to the outside and is closed
at the other end by the eardrum. Estimate the frequencies (in the audible range) of the
standing waves in the ear canal. What is the relationship of your answer to the information
in the graph of Fig. 1?
 ©Onikienko E. V. Methodical supply to the Self-Study option on Biophysics

Tasks
Task 1. Define the frequency range and the wavelength range of sound infrasound and
ultrasound in air and water.
1. Indicate the frequency ranges of sound, infrasound and ultrasound.
2. Calculate the wavelength ranges in air (𝑣 = 330 𝑚/𝑠) and water (𝑣 = 1500 𝑚/𝑠).
Infrasound Sound Ultrasound
Frequency range 𝑓, Hz
Wavelength range in air 𝜆, m
Wavelength range in water 𝜆, m
Task 2. Calculate the reflection coefficient of sound waves on the boundary air-water.
1. Evaluate the acoustic impedance 𝑧 = 𝜌𝑣
Density 𝜌, kg/m3 Speed of sound 𝑣, m/s Acoustic impedance 𝑧, kg/m2·s
Air 1.29 330
Water 1000 1500
2. Calculate the reflection coefficient of sound waves on the air-water boundary
𝐼𝑟 𝑧1 − 𝑧2 2 𝜌1 𝑣1 − 𝜌2 𝑣2 2
𝑅= =( ) =( )
𝐼𝑖 𝑧1 + 𝑧2 𝜌1 𝑣1 + 𝜌2 𝑣2
where 𝐼𝑟 is the reflected wave intensity and 𝐼𝑖 is the incident wave intensity.
__________________________________________________________________________
3. Estimate the reflection coefficient for the following cases
at 𝑧1 ≫ 𝑧2 𝑅 ≈___________________________________
at 𝑧1 ≈ 𝑧2 𝑅 ≈___________________________________
in which of these two cases is there ECHO? _________________________________
Task 3. Estimate the intensities and intensity levels of various sounds.
𝐼
𝐿 = 10 log 𝐼0 = 10−12 𝑊/𝑚
𝐼0
Intensity 𝐼, 𝑊/𝑚2 Level of Intensity 𝐿, 𝑑𝐵
Threshold of Hearing 10−12
Threshold of Pain 120
Eardrum rupture 1000
Speech (1 person) 50
10 people speaking simultaneously