ACOUSTIC PRIVACY

Speed of sound
The speed of sound is the distance travelled per unit of time by a sound wave as it
propagates through an elastic medium. At 20 °C (68 °F), the speed of sound in air
is about 343 metres per second (1,235 km/h; 1,125 ft/s; 767 mph; 667 kn), or a
kilometre in 2.9 s or a mile in 4.7 s. It depends strongly on temperature as well as
the medium through which a sound wave is propagating. At 0 °C (32 °F), the
speed of sound is about 331 metres per second
 What is the Inverse Square Law?
If you run into a physicist and ask them to define the inverse square law, they might say
something along the lines of “the intensity of a force changes in inverse proportion to the square
of the distance from that force.” This definition might be a little confusing, but this law of physics
is not as complicated as it sounds.

In simple terms, the inverse square law states that any energy or force will have a drastic
dropoff in strength as it travels further away from the point source. Any source which spreads
out in all directions without getting lost obeys the inverse square law. This “source” can be
applied to the following energies and forces:

Sound
Gravitation
Electrostatics
Light
Radiation
 Inverse Square Law Formula
As mentioned earlier, the inverse square law specifies that the intensity of sound
weakens by 6 dB for each doubling of distance from the sound source. However, this
explanation is under the context that you’re in a free field – a place where there are no
reflective surfaces. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case with most conference rooms, so 6
dB should be viewed more like an approximation.

inverse-square-law.PNGSound intensity is defined as power over area. If you want to

calculate the sound intensity at any distance from the source, there’s a formula you can
use:

Here’s what each symbol represents:

I = Intensity of sound
P = Power of the source
r = Distance between the source and the point of interest
The diagram illustrates how sound spreads out and
weakens the further away it gets from the source:

Overall, if you take anything away from the inverse

square law regarding acoustics, remember that
greater distance = lower sound level.