Reflection of Sound
→ Like light, sound also bounce back when it falls on a hard
surface. It is called reflection of sound.
• The laws of reflection of light are obeyed during reflection of
sound.
(i) The incident sound wave, the reflected sound wave and normal
at the point of incidence lie in the same plane.
(ii) Angle of reflection of sound is always equal to the angle of
incidence of sound.
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 reflected from a hard surface
(i.e. brick wall, mountain etc.) as soft surface tends to absorb
sound.
Minimum distance to hear an echo
Speed = Distance/Time
Here, Speed of sound in air = 344 ms-1 at 22ºC
Time = 0.1 second
⇒ Distance = 344 × 0.1 = 34.4 m
344 = Distance/0.1 sec
So, distance between reflecting surface and audience = 34.4/2 =
17.2 (at 22ºC).
Reverberation
• 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.
Methods to reduce reverberation in big halls or
auditoriums
→ Panels made of felt or compressed fibre board are put on walls
and ceiling to absorb sound.
→ Heavy curtains are put on doors and windows.
→ Carpets are put on the floor.
→ Seats are made of material having sound absorbing properties.
Applications of Reflection of Sound
(i) Megaphone, loudspeakers, bulb horns and trumpets, shehnai
etc.
→ All these instruments have funnel tube which reflects sound
waves repeatedly towards audience. In this amplitude of sound
waves adds up to increase loudness of sound.
(ii) Stethoscope:. The sound of the heartbeats reaches the
doctor’s ears by the multiple reflection of the sound waves in the
rubber tube of stethoscope.
(iii) Sound Board: In big halls or auditoriums sound is absorbed
by walls, ceiling, seats etc. So a curved board (sound board) is
placed behind the speakers so that his speech can be heard easily
by audiences. The soundboard works on the multiple reflection of
sound.
(iv) The ceiling of concert halls are made curved, so that sound
after reflection from ceiling, reaches all the parts of the hall.
Range of Hearing
(i) Range of hearing in human is 20 Hz to 20000 Hz.
→ Children younger than 5 years and dogs can hear upto 25 KHz.
(ii) The sounds of frequencies lower than 20 Hz are known as
‘infrasonic sounds’.
→ A vibrating simple pendulum produces infrasonic sounds.
→ Rhinoceroses communicate each other using frequencies as
low as 5 Hz.
→ Elephants and whales produces infrasonic waves.
→ Earthquakes produces infrasonic waves (before shock waves)
which some animals can hear and get disturbed.
(iii) The sounds of frequencies higher than 20 KHz are known as
‘ultrasonic waves’.
→ Dogs, parpoises, dolphins, bats and rats can hear ultrasonic
sounds.
→ Bats and rats can produce ultrasonic sounds.
Hearing Aid
→ It is battery operated electronic device used by persons who
are hard of hearing.
→ Microphone convert sound into electrical signals, than those
are amplified by amplifier. Amplified signals are send to the
speaker of hearing aid. The speaker converts the amplified signal
to sound and sends to ear for clear hearing.
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) Echocardiography: These waves are used to reflect the
action of heart and its images are formed. This technique is called
echocardiography.
(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 find 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.
→ These reflected waves are converted into electric signals by
detector.
→ The sonar device measures the time taken by ultrasound
waves to travel from ship to bottom of sea and back to ship.
→ Half of this time gives the time taken by the ultrasound waves
from ship to bottom.
• Let the time interval between transmission and reception of
ultrasound signal is t.
Speed of sound through sea water is v
Total distance travelled by waves = 2d.
Then, 2d = v × t.
This is called echo ranging.
→ The sonar is used to find the depth of sea, to locate underwater
hills, valleys, submarines, icebergs and sunken ships etc.
→ Bats fly in the dark night by emitting high pitched ultrasound
waves which are reflected from the obstacle or prey and returned
to bats ear.
→ The nature of reflection tells the bat where the obstacle or prey
is and what it is like.
Structure of Human Ear
→ The ear consists of three parts: outer ear, middle ear and
inner ear.
Working of Human ear
Pinna → Ear canal → Ear drum → Hammer → Anvil → Stirrup →
Oval window → Cochlea → Auditory nerve → Brain
→ When compression of sound wave strikes the ear drum, the
pressure on the outside of ear drum increases and pushes the ear
drum inwards.
→ While during rarefaction ear drum moves outwards. Thus, ear
drum starts vibrating back and forth.
→ These vibrations are increased by three bones and middle ear
transmits these amplified pressure variations received from sound
waves to inner ear.
→ In the inner ear the pressure variations are turned into electric
signals by the cochlea.
→ These electric signals are sent to the brain via auditory nerve
and the brain interprets them as sound.