Class 9 Sound

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Introduction
What is sound?
→ Sound helps us to communicate with one another and plays an important role in our
life.

→ Vibrating body produces sound. Sound cannot be produced without any vibration.

→ A sound is a form of energy that is produced when air molecules vibrate in a

particular pattern called waves. Hence, the sound is a wave.

→ Sound is a form of energy that is produced by producing vibration in an object.

→ Sound cannot move through vacuum. (We cannot hear sound in a place where is no air)

→ Sound waves are longitudinal waves.

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How is a sound produced?
A sound is produced when an object vibrates, that is they move
in a ‘to-and-fro’ motion.
→ When we strike a tuning fork or a stretched rubber band, it vibrates and produces

sound.

→ The human voice is produced because of the vibration of the vocal cords.

→ String instruments produce sound as their strings vibrate.

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→ When a bird flaps its wings a sound is produced.

→ A flute produces sound because the air column of the flute vibrates as air passes
through it.

How does sound travel?

→ Sound requires material medium for propagation.

→ Sound can travel through solid, liquid or gas.

→ Sound cannot travel through vacuum.

→ No sound can be heard in outer spaces.

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→ we can say that the particles of a medium do not travel from one point one another in
order to propagate sound. Sound propagates because of the disturbance caused by a
source of sound in the medium.

What is a wave?
→ A wave is a disturbance produced in a medium as the particles of the medium vibrate.

→ The particles produce motion in each other without moving forward or backwards.

→ This leads to the propagation of sound.

→ Hence sound is often called a Wave.

How can sound travel through air?

→ When an object vibrates in the air or produces a sound, some regions of high pressure
are created in front of it. These are called the Regions of Compression.

→ WIth alternate regions of compression, there are also regions of low pressure that are
in its front. These are called Regions of Rarefaction.

→ As the object would move forwards and backwards consecutively producing sound,
the series of compressions and rarefactions will be created.

→ we can also say that propagation of sound is all about change in the pressure of the

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medium.

What are mechanical waves?

→ sound waves are mechanical waves.

→ Sound waves are longitudinal because the particles of the medium vibrate in the
direction which is parallel to the direction of the propagation of the sound waves.

→ Light is a transverse wave but for light, the oscillations are not of the medium
particles or their pressure or density – it is not a mechanical wave. You will come to
know more about transverse waves in higher classes.

A sound wave is characterized by few Important factors:

Frequency

→ Frequency is measure of number of oscillations per second.

→ It is measured in hertz(Hz).

Time Period
→ The time taken for one complete oscillation of a sound wave is called the time period
of the sound wave.

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→ SI unit: second (s)

Amplitude
→ The amplitude of a sound wave can be de ined as the maximum displacement of the
particles from their mean position due to the vibrations.

→ SI unit: metre (m)

Wavelength (λ)
→ The distance between two consecutive compressions or refractions is called
Wavelength.

→ SI unit: metre (m)

Crest - It is the peak of the curve

Trough -It is the crust of the curve

Pitch of the sound

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→ Pitch or shrillness depends on frequency.

→ Higher frequency– higher pitch

Timber
→ Some sounds may have same pitch and amplitude which we can differentiate by
The timbre or Quality of sound.

Tone
→ The sound which has single frequency throughout is called a Tone.

Note
→ A sound with more than one frequency is called a Note. It is pleasant to listen.

Noise
→ It is an unpleasant sound.

Music
→ It is a sound which is pleasant and has rich quality.

What is the Speed of sound???

v = wavelength / time = λ/T = λ*F

Speed of Sound in air = 333 m/s

Sound cannot travel at the same speed in different mediums.

What is a sonic boom?

→ When an object travels in the air with a speed greater than that of the sound, it
produces a sound with high energy.

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Speed of light in air = 3 * 108 m/s

Speed of sound in air = 333 m/s

→ This clearly states that sound travels a lower speed than that of light in air.

→ This is a reason why at the time of lightening, the light is visible instantly while the
sound of the thunder reaches our ears after a few seconds.

Good Reflectors of Sound do not absorb the sound.

Bad Reflectors of Sound absorb the sound easily.

Laws of Reflection of Sound

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→ The incident sound wave, the reflected sound wave and the normal, all lie in the same
plane.

→ The angle of incident of incident sound wave is equal to the angle of reflection formed
by the reflected sound wave, that is, i = r.

Echo
→ The repetition of sound caused by the reflection of sound waves is called an echo.

→ We can hear echo when there is a time gap of 0.1 second in original sound and echo
(reflected sound).

→ Echo is produced when sound re lected from a hard surface (i.e. brick wall, mountain
etc.) as soft surface tends to absorb sound.
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→ The persistence of sound in a big hall due to repeated reflection of sound from the
walls, ceiling and floor of the hall is called reverberation.

→ If reverberation is too long, sound becomes blurred, distorted and confusing due to
overlapping of different sound.

Q. Methods to reduce reverberation in big halls or auditoriums.

→ Panels made of felt or compressed ibre board are put on walls and ceiling to absorb
sound.

→ Heavy curtains are put on doors and windows.

→ Carpets are put on the loor.

→ Seats are made of material having sound absorbing properties.

Advantages of Multiple Reflection of Sound

→ Horns, trumpets, loudhailers or megaphones are designed in such a way that sound
can travel in a particular direction only without spreading out everywhere.

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→ The multiple re lections in a stethoscope tube make it possible for the doctors to
listen to a patient’s heartbeat.

→ Concert halls are generally covered so that sound can re lect through it and reach the
wider audience.

• Sounds that can be heard by human ears are called audible sounds. The range of
audible sounds is from 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz (20 kHz).

• Sounds that cannot be heard by human ears are called inaudible sound.

• Any sounds having a frequency less than 20 Hz or greater than 20,000 Hz (20 KHz)
are categorized as inaudible sounds.

• The inaudible sounds can be divided into two categories as infrasound and
ultrasound.

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Hearing Aid-
→ The Hearing Aid contains a microphone which receives the sound from the outer
atmosphere and converts it into electrical energy.

→ This electrical energy is passed through an ampli ier which ampli ies the sound and
then moves it to a speaker.

Applications of Ultrasound-
(i) It is used to detect cracks in metal blocks in industries without damaging them.

(ii) It is used in industries to clean ‘hard to reach’ parts of objects such as spiral tubes,
odd shaped machines etc.

(iii) It is used to investigate the internal organs of human body such as liver, gall
bladder, kidneys, uterus and heart.

(iv) Ecocardiography: These waves are used to reflect the action of heart and its
images are formed. This technique is called echocardiography.

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(v) Ultrasonography: The technique of obtaining pictures of internal organs of the
body by using echoes of ultrasound waves is called ultrasonography.

(vi) Ultrasound is used to split tiny stones in kidneys into fine grains.

SONAR
→ The word ‘SONAR’ stands for ‘Sound Navigation And Ranging’.

→ SONAR is a device which is used to ind distance, direction and speed of underwater
objects.

→ SONAR consists of a transmitter and a receptor or detector and installed at the

bottom of a ship.

→ The transmitter produces and transmits ultrasonic waves.

→ These waves travel through water and after striking the objects on the bottom of sea,
are reflected back and received by detector.

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→ The distance of the object is calculated with the help of the speed of sound in water
and time taken by the way to reach the detector. This process is called Echo Ranging.

How do bats search their prey?

→ Bats generate Ultrasonic waves. (Ultrasound) which are reflected from the obstacle
or prey and returned to bats ear.

→ The term sonic applies to ultrasound waves of very high amplitude.

→ The nature of re lection tells the bat where the obstacle or prey is and what it is like.

How do we hear?

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→ Human ear has three parts outer, middle and inner.

→ Shape of the outer part of the ear is like a funnel.

→ The outer ear is called pinna. It collects the sound from surroundings.

→ This sound passes through the auditory canal.

→ At the end of auditory canal, is a thin elastic membrane called ear drum or tympanic
membrane.

→ The middle ear contains of three bones: hammer, anvil and stirrup linked with one
another. Free end of hammer touches ear drum and that of stirrup linked with
membrane of oval window of inner ear.

1. The outer ear (Pinna): It catches the sound waves and forwards them to the next
part of the ear, that is, the middle ear.

2. The middle ear: It converts the sound waves into vibrations that then travel to the
inner ear. It can do this with the help of the eardrum.

[Link] inner ear (cochlea): It receives the vibrations sent by the eardrum. It contains a
liquid substance and the vibrations that enter the inner ear moves through this liquid.

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Pinna → Ear canal → Ear drum → Hammer → Anvil → Stirrup → Oval window →
Cochlea → Auditory nerve → Brain

[Link] frequency of sound can human being hear?

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