SOUND

Sound is a wave that is produced by vibrations, such as a string on a guitar. A soundwave moves
through a medium, such as air, from one place to another. Soundwaves are longitudinal waves, not
transverse waves. When you hear a sound, it is because soundwaves have traveled through the air
to your ear. You can not see the soundwaves, but they are there. These soundwaves carry the
energy from a sound source, such as a human voice, or a musical instrument. Without the air, you
wouldn’t hear anything at all. Without the air, there would be no soundwave. There would be no
sound.

When soundwaves reach your ear, your eardrum vibrates. These vibrations are translated into
sounds by the brain. Another way to say it is that the human ear converts soundwave in the ear
into vibrations inside the ear. The ear then converts the energy of those vibrations into a nerve
impulse. From the ear, the nerve impulse is transmitted to the brain, you hear sound. ,

Another interesting thing about sound is that soundwaves travel at different speeds in different
substances. The substances, or medium, that the soundwave is traveling through determines the
speed of sound. For example, sound travels faster in water than in air, Sound travels even faster in
a solid. In fact, soundwaves travel almost 20 times faster through steel than through air, which is a
gas.

Also, temperature affects the speed of sound. Soundwaves travel faster through high-temperature
mediums than through low-temperature mediums. That means sound travels faster on a hot day
than when it is cold.

The rate of vibration, or frequency of sound determines how high or low it is. A high-pitched
sound has a higher frequency than a low-pitched sound. The volume of a sound is determined by
the amplitude of the soundwave. If music is too loud, it can hurt your ears. When you turn up the
volume of a sound, you are increasing the amplitude of the sound waves.

The frequency decreases, because the wavelength increases due to the motion of the sound
sources. If a sound comes towards you, the frequency increases or the sound gets higher. This is
because the wavelength gets shorter. This effect is called the Doppler effect.