Chapter 11 (10th Physics) Sound

1. What is sound?
Ans. Sound is the form of energy which travels through a medium in the form of longitudinal
waves.
2. How sound is produced?
Ans. Sound is produced due to vibration of a body.
3. How sound heard?
Ans. When sound falls on the ear membrane, it produces the sensation of hearing.
4. Why sound waves are called mechanical waves?
Ans. The mechanical energy is converted into sound waves when they travel in a medium that is
why, sound waves are called mechanical waves.
5. Which things are necessary for the production and transmission of sound.
Ans. Three things are necessary for the production and transmission of sound.
i. Vibrating body
ii. Transmitting medium
iii. Hearing device
6. A simple pendulum produces vibrations. Why you cannot hear them?
Ans. Because a vibrating simple pendulum does not produce an audible sound. Its frequency is
too low to be heard. The frequency of these waves are less than 20Hz which is infrasonic and
not audible for human
7. What is medium?
Ans. The substance through which sound travels is called medium.
8. Define hearing device.
Ans. Any device that can detect sound waves is called a hearing device. Ear is an example of
natural hearing device.
9. Take a tuning fork and strike it on a rubber pad. It will start vibrating. If you put the fork in a
glass of water, it will splash. Why?
Ans. Vibrating tuning fork make disturbance if we put the fork in glass of water due to this it will
splash out.
10. Define acoustics.
Ans. A branch of science that deals with the production, control, transmission, reception and
effects of sound is called acoustics.
11. What are the fundamental characteristics of sound?
Ans. The fundamental characteristics of sound are loudness, pitch and quality.
12. Define loudness of sound.
Ans. The characteristics of sound by which a loud and faint sound can be distinguished is called
loudness.
13. On what factors does loudness of sound depends upon?
Ans. Loudness of a sound depends upon following factors:
i. Area of the vibrating body
ii. Amplitude of vibrating body
iii. Distance of vibrating body
14. How does area of the vibrating body affect the loudness of sound?

Composed by Kashif Mughal

Chapter 11 (10th Physics) Sound
Ans. Larger is the surface area of vibrating body, louder is the sound produced by it. For
example, a drum (Dhool) produces a loud sound as compared with that produced by dhoolac ( a
small drum).
15. Briefly describe the Amplitude of vibrating body.
Ans. If the amplitude of the vibrating body is large, the sound produced will be loud. While the
sound will be low if the amplitude is small.
16. How distance from the vibrating body is affected to loudness of sound?
Ans. The loudness of a sound depends upon the distance of the vibrating body from the listener.
Loudness of sound increases or decreases as the distance between the source of sound and the
listener decreases or increases respectively.
17. Define intensity of sound or acoustic intensity.
Ans. Energy passing per second through a unit area held perpendicular to the direction of
propagation of sound waves is called intensity of sound.
The SI unit of sound intensity is watt per-square meter (w/m²).
18. What is meant by zero bel?
Ans. The barely audible and the faintest intensity of sound i.e., 10 -¹² w/m² is taken as reference
intensity called zero bel.
19. What is the threshold of hearing?
Ans. The faintest sound that a human ear can detect is known as the threshold of hearing.
20. Define pitch of a sound.
Ans. The characteristics of a sound by which a shrill sound can be distinguished from a grave
sound. It depends upon frequency.
21. What is meant by quality of sound?
Ans. The property of sound by which two sound of same loudness and pitch are distinguished
from each other is called the quality of sound.
22. What is difference between musical sound and noise?
Ans. Sounds which having pleasant effect on our ears are called musical sounds and those
having unpleasant or jarring effect on our ears are called noise.
23. What is echo?
Ans. The bouncing back of sound when it strikes a hard surface like walls, metal sheets,
plywood, etc., is called reflection of sound or echo.
24. What is echo time?
Ans. The time taken by sound to travel a distance of 2d in going from observer to wall and then
back to observer is called echo time.
25. Define speed of sound.
Ans. The distance travelled per unit time by a sound wave as it propagates through a medium. It
can be found by following relation.
V=fλ
26. What is the speed of sound in air at STP?
Ans. The speed of sound in air at STP is 340 m/s.
27. In which medium speed of sound is faster.
Ans. The order of decrease in speed of sound in solids, liquids and gases are as follows:
V solids > V liquids > V gases.
Thus speed of sound in solid is faster.

Composed by Kashif Mughal

Chapter 11 (10th Physics) Sound
28. What are the factors that affect the speed of sound in air?
Ans. Factors that affect the speed of sound in air are:
i. Temperature of the air.
ii. Density of the air.
iii. Pressure and humidity of the air.
iv. Altitude
29. How does echo method help the mountain climbers and miners?
Ans. Mountain climbers can determine the width of a valley and miners can determined the
depth of a well by using echo method.
30. How is echo useful for some animals?
Ans. Some animals like dolphins, whales and bats use echo for locations, sensing navigation and
communication.
31. What is reverberation?
Ans. An echo that returns to the ear in 0.1 second or less is referred as reverberation.
32. Define noise pollution.
Ans. Noise with a harmful level of sound that it disturbs the normal functioning of any natural
ecosystem or human community is termed as noise pollution.
33. Define acoustic protection.
Ans. Damping of noise by using soft and porous materials is called acoustic protection.
34. Give brief description of human audible frequency range.
Ans. A typical human ear can hear only those sounds whose frequency is between 20 Hz to
20,000 Hz, called audible frequency range.
35. What is meant by ultrasound or ultrasonic?
Ans. Sound waves of frequency higher than 20,000 Hz, which are inaudible to normal human
ear are called ultrasounds.
36. How ultrasound is useful for detecting very small objects.
Ans. The wavelength of ultrasonic waves is very small and is very useful for detecting very small
objects.
37. Write some applications of ultrasounds.
Ans. Some of the important uses of ultrasound are given below:
i. Ultrasound is used in “sonar” to measure the depth of sea (or ocean) and to locate
the underwater objects like the shoals of fish, shipwrecks, submarines, sea-rocks
and hidden ice-bergs in the sea.
ii. Ultrasound is used to investigate defect in internal organs of the human body.
iii. Ultrasound is used in the treatment of muscular pain and in the treatment of a
disease called arthritis (inflammation of joints).
iv. Ultrasound is used in industry for detecting flaws in metal blocks or sheets without
damaging them.
v. Ultrasound is used for finding the level of a liquid in a metal tank (without opening
it).
38. What is meant by SONAR?
SONAR stands for sound navigation and ranging. Sonar is used to measure the depth of sea and
to locate the under water objects.

Composed by Kashif Mughal