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Introduction to the study of acoustics – nature of sound, basic terminology –

frequency, pitch, tone, sound pressure, sound intensity, decibel scale, loudness,
threshold of audibility and pain, masking, sound and distance inverse square law.

1.1 Introduction:

Acoustics is a branch of physics that study the sound, acoustics concerned with the
production, control, transmission, reception, and effects of sound.
The study of acoustics has been fundamental to many developments in the arts, science,
technology, music, biology, etc

“A science that deals with the production, control, transmission, reception, and effects of
sound.” Definition from the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary

Acoustics encompasses the realm of sound transmission through solids and fluids. Sound may
be described as the passage of pressure fluctuations through an elastic medium as the result of
a vibrational impetus imparted to that medium. Acoustics has been the subject of many years
of study, dating as far back as prehistoric times when ancient archers discovered their
bowstrings made pleasant sounds, shepherds fashioned rudimentary flutes from reeds and
music gradually evolved as an expression of human emotions.
Acoustics involves many areas. Knowledge in acoustics is important for many professional
engineers and architects, but also for professionals from other faculties, such as medical
doctors, psychologists, biologists, oceanographers, media professionals and so forth.
Knowledge in acoustics is essential to promote the creation of environments, both indoors and
outdoors, involving rooms with good listening conditions for speakers, musicians and listeners
and also living environments and working areas which are reasonably free from harmful and/or
intruding noise and vibrations and with acoustic comfort. In other words; acoustics is a
discipline of great importance for a sustainable development.
Sound is an important part of human life and culture. In class rooms, meeting rooms, cinemas,
theatres, concert halls, etc. the design has to be such that it is easy to speak and comfortable
to listen with a high degree of intelligibility. Also these parts of acoustics belong to the
professional area of a specialist in sound and vibration.

Architectural acoustics (also known as room acoustics and building acoustics) is the science
and engineering of achieving a good sound within a building and is a branch of acoustical
engineering. The first application of modern scientific methods to architectural acoustics was
carried out by Wallace Sabine in the Fogg Museum lecture room who then applied his new
found knowledge to the design of Symphony Hall, Boston.
Architectural acoustics can be about achieving good speech intelligibility in a theatre,
restaurant or railway station,
enhancing the quality of music in a concert hall or recording studio, or suppressing noise to
make offices and homes more productive and pleasant places to work and live in.
Architectural acoustic design is usually done by acoustic consultants.

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1.2 Acoustics: Sound
Sound is a mechanical wave and therefore requires a medium in which it can travel.
Acoustics is classically divided into sound and vibration.
Sound refers to waveforms traveling through a fluid medium such as air
Vibration describes energy transmitted through denser materials such as wood, steel, stone,
dirt, drywall or anything besides a fluid.
It is not heard as much as felt, due to its extremely low frequency, which is below the range of
most human hearing.

Sound is a mechanical wave that results from the back and forth vibration of the particles of
the medium through which the sound wave is moving. If a sound wave is moving from left to
right through air, then particles of air will be displaced both rightward and leftward as the
energy of the sound wave passes through it. The motion of the particles is parallel (and anti-
parallel) to the direction of the energy transport. This is what characterizes sound waves in air as
longitudinal waves.

1.3 Sound as wave: Characteristic of sound wave or Nature of sound wave

Each Sound wave has unique pattern

Frequency
Wavelength
Amplitude

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1.3.1 Terminology

1. A full circuit by a displaced particle is known as cycle.

2. And the time required to complete one cycle is called as period.
3. The number of cyclical variations per unit time is called as frequency. Frequency is generally
expressed in cycles per second and is denoted by Hertz (Hz)

 Pitch of the sound

 Musical notes: there are 12 notes on a staff from A to G
 Bass : Low frequency 0 to 300 Hz
 Mid range : “voice” 300 to 6,000 Hz
 Treble: High frequency, above “middle” C note, 6,000 to 20,000 Hz.
 Spectrum of frequency

4. The wavelength of sound is the distance between analogous points of two successive waves.
5. The maximum displacement of the vibrating particle of the given medium from the mean
position is defined as the Amplitude of the wave. The maximum displacement of a vibrating
particle of the medium from its mean position is called Amplitude. Here in the sound wave,
amplitude represents the loudness of the sound.

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The maximum height of the wave is called its Amplitude. If the sound intensity is more, then the
amplitude of the sound wave is more.
Volume control
Loudness
Strength of the wave ( measured in db “decibels”)
Energy of the wave

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6. Pitch and tone

Pitch is a key auditory attribute of sound. It is a perceived fundamental frequency of sound. The
human auditory system cannot perceive and differentiate between frequencies of notes in
some given circumstances. Pitch is subjective in that the perceived tones to a listener are
assigned to a musical scale’s relative positions based mainly on frequency of vibration. The
frequency of the tones determines the ‘just-noticeable difference’ (jnd), which is the threshold
of change perception.
On the other hand tone represents the ‘quality’ of sound, that which distinguishes it and makes
it recognizable by its constant ‘pitch’. A tone’s pitch defines its depth (or height) in relation to
the complete series of tones that can be heard by the ear. This is why two instruments sound
differently even if the pitch is the same, for instance a violin and a flute playing the same pitch
will sound differently. The way a listener evaluates frequency also represents pitch of a tone.
Obviously a higher pitch results from a higher frequency and a lower frequency gives a lower
pitch.

In music terms, pitch, as opposed to tone, is the actual value of the note sung while tone would
be the thickness, or how full or shrill the note is. So, in musical terms, a natural vocal production
should first be established before a singer can embark on ‘pitch training’. When a natural vocal
production is in place, then singing on pitch comes off easily. Still defining musical terms, tone is
the timbre or quality of a note. It’s important to know that in singing, a singer can be perfect on
pitch but horrible with tone. This is because there are a lot of factors that influence tone, for
instance a singer’s physical condition, breath support, technique and many more.
Summary:
 Pitch is a perceived fundamental frequency of sound while tone is the ‘quality’ of sound.
 In the field of music, pitch is the actual value of a tone while tone is the thickness of the
note.
 In music, pitch can be perfect while tone cannot be perfect.

7. Speed of sound
Velocity of a wave= Frequency (f) times the wavelength (l)
V=fl
The speed of propagation of sound in dry air at a temperature of 0° C (32° F) is 331.6 m/sec
(1088 ft/sec). If the temperature is increased, the speed of sound increases; thus, at 20° C (68°
F), the velocity of sound is 344 m/sec (1129 ft/sec)
Sound travels at 1130 feet per second at normal room temperature.
Light travels at 299,792,458 meters per second, which is roughly 974,325,489 feet per second
(974 million feet per second!!)

8. Resonance of sound
Any oscillating object has a natural frequency, which is the frequency an oscillating object
tends to settle into if it is not disturbed.
The phenomenon in which a relatively small, repeatedly applied force causes the amplitude of
an oscillating system to become very large is called resonance

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9. Beats
The pulse or pattern of regular accents, of a musical piece can be broken into individual
pulses, or beats a fractional symbol in which the numerator specifies the number of beats per
bar, and the denominator specifies the relative note value assigned to one beat.

10. Doppler Effect

The frequency of the perceived wave is changed by the motion of the source
Increasing Frequency when the source approaches the sensor decreasing Frequency when
the source increases the distance from the sensor

11. Sound medium

A medium is a material that sound, a form of energy, need to transfer. Speed of sound
Solid : Fast speed
Liquid : Medium speed
Gas : Slow Speed
Vacuum : No Sound

12. Sound pressure

Sound travels in an elastic medium such as air, water, earth etc. an elastic medium returns to its
normal state once a force is removed. Pressure is a force per unit area. Sound energy
progresses rapidly, producing extremely small changes in atmospheric pressure, and travel
great distances. This difference in a given medium between the local pressure and the pressure
in the sound wave is termed as Sound pressure.

13. Sound intensity

Sound intensity or acoustic intensity is defined as the sound power per unit area. The usual
context is the noise measurement of sound intensity in the air at a listener's location as a sound
energy quantity.
Sound intensity is not the same physical quantity as sound pressure. Hearing is directly sensitive
to sound pressure which is related to sound intensity. In consumer audio electronics, the level
differences are called "intensity" differences, but sound intensity is a specifically defined
quantity and cannot be sensed by a simple microphone.

14. Sound intensity level

Sound intensity level or acoustic intensity level is a logarithmic measure of the sound intensity
(measured in W/m2), in comparison to a reference level. The measure of a ratio of two sound
intensities is

Where L1- Sound intensity level (dB)

I 1- Sound Intensity (W/m^2)
I 0- Reference sound Intensity (10^ -2, W/m^2)
The sound intensity level is given the letter "LI" and is measured in "dB". The decibel is a
dimensionless quantity.

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1.5 Summary

Sounds are created by Moving molecule in the medium ( Solid, Liquid and Gases)
Sounds are measured by Frequency, Wavelength, Speed, and Amplitude.
Sounds can combine by interference
Sounds can be changed by the Acoustics of the Area or the speed of the source (Doppler
Effect)
Sounds are used in many devices.
Sound is reflected, transmitted, or absorbed by the materials it encounters.
Soft surfaces, such as textiles, and batt insulation, tend to absorb sound waves, preventing
them from further motion.
Hard surfaces, such as ceramic tile, gypsum board, or wood, tend to reflect sound waves,
causing ‘echo’. Reverberation is the term used to describe sound waves that are reflected off
of surfaces.
Dense, massive, materials, such as concrete or brick, tend to transmit sound waves through
the material.
High frequency sound waves (think of a high whistle) are not capable of being transmitted
through massive, heavy, material.
Low frequency sound waves (bass) are transmitted through massive materials.

1.6 Decibel Scale

Humans are equipped with very sensitive ears capable of detecting sound waves of extremely
low intensity. The faintest sound that the typical human ear can detect has an intensity of 1*10-
12 W/m2. This intensity corresponds to a pressure wave in which a compression of the particles
of the medium increases the air pressure in that compression region by a mere 0.3 billionth of
an atmosphere. A sound with an intensity of 1*10-12 W/m2 corresponds to a sound that will
displace particles of air by a mere one-billionth of a centimeter. The human ear can detect
such a sound. WOW! This faintest sound that a human ear can detect is known as the threshold
of hearing (TOH). The most intense sound that the ear can safely detect without suffering any
physical damage is more than one billion times more intense than the threshold of hearing.
Since the range of intensities that the human ear can detect is so large, the scale that is
frequently used by physicists to measure intensity is a scale based on powers of 10. This type of
scale is sometimes referred to as a logarithmic scale. The scale for measuring intensity is the
decibel scale. The threshold of hearing is assigned a sound level of 0 decibels (abbreviated 0
dB); this sound corresponds to an intensity of 1*10-12 W/m2. A sound that is 10 times more
intense (1*10-11 W/m2) is assigned a sound level of 10 dB. A sound that is 10*10 or 100 times
more intense (1*10-
10 W/m2) is assigned a sound level of 20 db. A sound that is 10*10*10 or 1000 times more
intense (1*10-9 W/m2) is assigned a sound level of 30 db. A sound that is 10*10*10*10 or 10000
times more intense (1*10-8 W/m2) is assigned a sound level of 40 db. Observe that this scale is
based on powers of 10. If one sound is 10x times more intense than another sound, then it has
a sound level that is 10*x more decibels than the less intense sound.
The perception of sound in any organism is limited to a certain range of frequencies. For
humans, hearing is normally limited to frequencies between about 20 Hz and 20,000 Hz (20
kHz), although these limits are not definite. The upper limit generally decreases with age. Other
species have a different range of hearing. For example, dogs can perceive vibrations higher
than 20 kHz, but are deaf to anything below 40 Hz.

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Many animals hear a much wider range of frequencies than human beings do.
For example, dog whistles vibrate at a higher frequency than the human ear can detect, while
evidence suggests that dolphins and whales communicate at frequencies beyond human
hearing (ultrasound).
Frequency is measured in hertz, or the number of sound waves a vibrating object gives off per
second. The more the object vibrates, the higher the frequency and the higher the pitch of the
resulting sound.

1.7 Sound and distance

Sound waves from a point source outdoors with no obstruction are virtually spherical and
expand outward from the source.
In Physics an inverse square law is any physical law stating that a specified physical quantity or
intensity is inversely proportion to square of the distance from source of physical quantity.

Sound waves from a point source outdoors with no obstruction are virtually spherical and
expand outward from the source.
Power is a basic quantity of energy flow.
Sound Intensity is power per unit area. This relationship can be expressed as: I = W/Area
I is sound intensity, W is sound power. The inverse square law for sound is
L1/L2= (d2/d1) ^2

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References:

 http://www‐way.vpr.drexel.edu/files/bioengg_Instrumentation/site/IMPORTANCE.html
http://www.ta.chalmers.se/education.php?page=mst_role
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Architectural_acoustics http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/sound-frequency-
wavelength-d_56.html http://physics.tutorvista.com/waves/amplitude-of-a-wave.html
http://www.differencebetween.net/miscellaneous/difference-between-tone-and-pitch/
http://www.physicsclassroom.com/class/sound/Lesson-2/Intensity-and-the-Decibel-Scale Architectural
Acoustics work book- David Egan, Charles. W . Tilley
Architectural Acoustics- M. David Egan.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverse-square_law
http://hyperphysics.phyastr.gsu.edu/hbase/acoustic/invsqs.html
Architectural acoustics illustrated-michael ermann
Architectural Acoustics principles and practice William J Cavanaugh/ Gregory C. Tocci/ Joseph A. Wilkes

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