INTERACTIVE SOUND NOTES ONLINE

Click here for Interactive Sound Notes:

VIBRATION

  • Summarize how sound travels and explain what the energy is that allows it to occur.
  • Describe the different components waves have.
  • List and discuss the different types of waves that exist.

Questions

  1. In each case, what is the energy that makes the sound happen?

SPEED OF SOUND IN AIR

  • Discuss the relationship between the speed of sound and speed of light.
  • Describe what the sound barrier is.

Questions

  1. What conclusion can you draw about the speed of sound relative to the speed of light?

SPEED OF SOUND IN OTHER MATERIALS

  • Explain whether or not the speed of sound is constant for all materials.
  • Describe what elasticity and density are and what relationship they have to the speed of sound.

Questions

  1. What happens when you change the material through which the sound travels?
  1. Through which material does sound move faster? Why do you think it is faster?

TEMPERATURE AND THE SPEED OF SOUND

  • Observe the demonstrations below and explain the differences in the speed of sound when the temperature is changed.

Questions

  1. What happens to the speed of sound when the temperature changes?
  1. Does sound travel faster or slower as temperature increases?

THE HUMAN EAR

  • Explain the main parts of the human ear and how they contribute to our hearing.

COMPONENTS OF SOUND

  • Explain what three things cause the differences in sounds.
  • Discuss why some sounds are pleasing and others are not.

FREQUENCY AND PITCH

Explain how you can change pitch by altering sources.

  • Describe what resonance is.

Questions

  1. What happens when you make the string shorter? Longer? Thicker? Thinner? Tighter? Looser?
  1. What happens when you make the string out of different material?

DOPPLER EFFECT

Observe the experiment below and discuss why you hear a difference when an object is moving, but the sound itself is not changing.

Questions

  1. If the noise the object makes is not changing, why do you hear a change?

SOUND WAVE INTERFERENCE

  • Explain what can happen to the energy of sound waves when the waves interact.
  • Compare and contrast constructive interference and destructive interference.
  • Explain what a critical angle is.

Questions

  1. What is the difference in sound between the overlap area and the single color area?
  1. What is the difference in sound in the white area?

REFRACTION OF SOUND

Questions

  1. What happens to sound traveling in one material when it enters another material at an angle normal to surface between the two materials (90 degrees to the surface)?
  1. What happens to sound traveling in one material when it enters another material at an angle other than normal to surface between the two materials?
  1. What happens to the sound as the incident angle approaches being parallel to the surface?

REFLECTION OF SOUND

  • Observe the experiment below and explain why the wave reacts differently depending on what surface it hits.
  • Discuss how echoes are made.

Questions

  1. What happens when a sound wave hits a concave shaped surface?
  2. Is the sound reflected back to the source from a concave shaped surface more or less than that reflected from a flat surface?
  3. What happens when a sound wave hits the porous surface?
  1. What happens when a sound wave hits an irregular surface?