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Good Vibrations – The nature of

sound

The physics of sound

Sound waves are pressure variations in the physical atmosphere. When I
speak, the sound I make creates a series of compressions and expansions
in the air immediately around me. These travel away at about 300 metres
per second (700 mph) in the form of waves which spread out like ripples
on a pond. If I’m talking to myself – a pastime hardly to be recommended
– these waves collide with the walls, chairs, tables – whatever – and make
them move ever so slightly. The waves are thus turned into heat and
‘disappear’. If there is anyone there to hear me, that part of the wave
which impinges on their external ear will travel down their auditory canal
and cause their eardrum to move slightly. What happens after that is a
subject we’ll look at later in the chapter. All that matters now is that the
sound, once received, is heard by the listener.
When we hear a voice of a friend, we recognise it instantly. Similarly if
we’re musical, we can recognise the sound of a particular musical
instrument. (Some people are even able to recognise the identity of an
instrumentalist by the sound alone.) So it’s clear that the sound of these
people and instruments must be different. There are plenty of lay terms to
describe the tone of someone’s voice: rich, reedy, discordant, syrupy,
seductive and so on. Musicians too have their adjectives, but these are
poetic rather than precise. Fortunately for the engineer, physicists and
mathematicians have provided a precise way of characterising any sound
– whenever or however it is produced.
It is a demonstrable property of all musical sound sources that they
oscillate: an oboe reed vibrates minutely back and forth when it is
blown; the air inside a flute swells and compresses by an equal and
opposite amount as it is played; a guitar string twangs back and forth.
Each vibration is termed a cycle. Any repeating pattern can be thought

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