Behaviour of Sound and its

Applications
 Behaviour of Sound waves
A sound wave won’t just stop when it reaches the end of a medium or when it hits an object.

Instead one of the following “behaviours” will occur:

• Transmission
• Absorption
• Reflection off the object

Diffraction is also possible

 Reflection of Sound
• Reflection of sound waves off barriers can result in an echo, a faint sound resembling the original
sound that is heard a short time after the original sound.

• This echo occurs when sound bounces off distant walls or objects and is ultimately returned to
your ear.

• A true echo can occur when the surface of reflection is more than about 17 meters away from
 Reflection of Sound
• Reflection of sound waves off of barriers can result in an echo, a faint
sound resembling the original sound.

• In this instance the sound wave will take more than 0.1 seconds to be
reflected and you will be able to detect a small gap in time between
perceiving original sound and the reflected sound.

• (Since the perception of a sound usually endures in memory for only 0.1
seconds, there will be a small time delay between the perception of the
original sound and the perception of the reflected sound. Thus, we call the
perception of the reflected sound wave an echo. If the surface off which
the sound is being reflects is closer than 17m then you could hear a
reverberation rather than an echo.)
 How far away?
• The time it takes for the echo to reach you can be used to calculate your distance from
the object reflecting the sound

CLICK and scroll down TO VIEW ANIMATIONS of

– a reverberation and
– an echo

• If the sound takes 0.36s to go to the wall and back again how far away is the wall?

• Use speed of sound(v) = 340m/s

• Time taken for the echo to reach the wall would be half the time taken for the echo to
reach your ear. 0.36/2=0.18 s.
• Speed of sound 340m/s
• Distance=v x t
• Distance=340 x 0.18
• d= 61.2m
 Now your turn
• The time it takes for a sound to reach you from the
moment it leaves you to the moment you hear the
echo is 1 second.
• How far away is the wall?
Assume Speed of sound = 340ms
ANSWER: Time taken for sound to travel to the wall = 1
seconds / 2 = 0.5 seconds
• Speed(v) = 340ms
• Distance = speed x time
= 340 x 0.5 = 170 m
 Application of Echo location
A human story
• Meet Ben Underwood
• Watch his story at least half way through and
answer the questions as you listen
 Echolocation

• http://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mwoOyOleGc
 Doppler Effect

• Explore the Doppler Effect. Use diagrams to

help explain what it is.
• http
://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4OnBYrbCjY