SOUND NOTES

1. How sound is produced?

Answer: Sound is produced by the vibration of vibrating object.
2. What do you understand by a wave?
Answer: A periodic disturbance created in material medium that transfer sound and light energy is
called wave.
3. Write three differences between sound and light waves.
Answer: sound wave is Mechanical wave that require material medium for propagation where
as light waves are electromagnetic wave that can travel in vacuum.
4. What do you understand by sound energy cannot be produced?
Answer: Sound energy cannot be produced on its own. Some mechanical energy is required to make
an object vibrate. It is the mechanical energy of the vibrating object which travels through a medium
and ultimately reaches the ear.
5. What is the name of the wave that can travel through vacuum?
Answer: Electromagnetic wave
6. Explain by some experiment that sound waves require medium for their propagation.
Answer: An electric bell is suspended inside an airtight glass bell jar connected to a vacuum pump.
As the electric bell circuit is completed, the sound is heard. Now if the air is slowly removed from
the bell jar by using a vacuum pump, the intensity of sound goes on decreasing and finally no sound
is heard when all the air is drawn out. We would be seeing the hammer striking the gong repeatedly.
This clearly proves that sound requires a material for its propagation.
7. How sound waves travel through some medium?
Answer: Sound waves work travel through some medium by passing vibrations from molecule to
molecule. If there is no medium, then there no molecules to pass vibrations.
8. Why sound waves do not propagate through vacuum?
Answer: If there is no medium, then there no molecules to pass vibrations.
9. What are the transverse waves? Give two examples.
Answer: Transverse waves:
A wave in which the particles of the medium vibrate at right angles to the direction, in which the
wave is moving, is called transverse wave. Example: Light waves.

10. What are longitudinal waves? Give two examples.

Answer: A wave in which the particles of the medium vibrate back and forth in the same direction
in which the wave is moving is called longitudinal wave. Example: sound waves.
11. Give two points of difference between longitudinal and transverse waves.
Answer: Differences between the transverse wave and longitudinal wave:Transverse wave :(1)A transverse wave is a wave in which variation of the amplitude of a wave is perpendicular to the
direction of propagation of wave.
(2) Light wave, wave in string, wave developed in water etc.
(3)In light wave electric and magnetic field oscillates normally to the direction of motion of the
wave.
(4) It may propagate in the vacuum.
Longitudinal wave :(1)A longitudinal wave is a wave in which variation of the amplitude of wave is in the direction of
the propagation of wave.
(2)sound wave, oscillation in the spring.
(3) In spring wave elongation or compression occurs along the direction of motion of the wave.
(4) It can not propagate in the vacuum.
12. Give four differences between transverse and longitudinal waves.
Mechanical waves
1. These waves require a material
medium for their propagation.
2. These are caused by vibrations of the
particles of the medium.
3. These waves have low speeds, e.g.
speed of sound in air is 330 m/s.
4. These waves have usually low
frequency and large wavelengths.

Electromagnetic waves
1. These waves do not require a
material medium for their propagation.
2. These are caused by vibrations of the
particles of the medium.
3. These waves travel with a very high
speed of 3x108 m/s through vaccum.
4. These waves have usually high
frequency and low wavelength.

12. How will you prove that the sound waves exhibit longitudinal behaviour?
Answer: Take a tuning fork and a hard pad. Allow the tuning fork to strike the pad which makes the
prongs to vibrate. When it starts vibrating, the inward and outward movements takes place in prong
which causes the movement of inward and outward towards the mean position. The tuning fork is
given as,
The vibration of the tuning fork produces the compressions and refractions of the sound in the air,

When the tuning fork vibrates in air, they force the particles of the air to vibrate back and forth by a
small distance. While vibrating, when the prong moves to the right side, it sends out a compression
and when the prong moves to the left, it produces a rarefaction in air.
The longitudinal waves in series produce compressions and rarefactions in air from the tuning fork.
These compressions and rarefactions of sound waves is formed by the vibrating particles causing
vibration in the ears, the eardrum vibrates for reproduction of sound.
13. What are rarefaction and compression in case of sound waves?
Answer: Compressions: Areas in the wave where the air molecules are close together and so at a
slightly higher pressure.
Rarefaction: Areas in the wave where the air molecules are further apart and so at a slightly lower
pressure.
14. Distinguish between crests and troughs.
Answer: The highest point of a wave is known as its crest while the trough is the lowest point of the
wave. Wavelength is the horizontal distance between successive crests or troughs.
15. Write the SI unit of velocity of a wave.
Answer: m/s
16. What is the relationship between time period and frequency?
Answer: T =

1
f

17 . Why is a thundering sound heard later than lightening?

Answer: This because the speed of sound is much lesser than that of light.
18. Sound travels with different speeds in different media. Comment.
Answer: Sound waves need to travel through a medium such as a solid, liquid, or gas. The sound
waves move through each of these mediums by vibrating the molecules in the matter. The molecules
in solids are packed very tightly. Liquids are not packed as tightly as solids. And gases are very
loosely packed. The spacing of the molecules enables sound to travel much faster through a solid
than a gas. Sound travels about four times faster and farther in water than it does in air. This is why
whales can communicate over huge distances in the oceans. Sound waves travel about thirteen times
faster in wood than air. They also travel faster on hotter days as the molecules bump into each other
more often than when it is cold.
19. How far are a compression and its nearest rarefaction in a longitudinal wave?
Answer: Wavelength ()/2
20. Define sound ranging.
Answer: The method of the determination of the location of a source of sound waves by measuring
the time lapse between their transmission and their reception
21. What is the frequency range of sound for human beings?
Answer: 20Hz to 20000Hz
22. What are the ultrasonic and supersonic waves?
Answer: Ultrasonic waves refer to sound of frequencies greater than those that can be heard
(usually frequencies above 20 kHz).
Supersonic refers to sound of velocities faster than the speed of sound (in the medium under
consideration).
23. What type of waves are produced by animals like bats and dolphins?
Answer: Ultrasound above 20000Hz

24. Explain two applications of ultra sound waves?

Answer: Ultrasound is a wave with frequency greater than the upper limit of human hearing. These
waves travel along well -defined paths and can even penetrate obstacles.
Some important applications of ultrasound are:
a. It is used for medical diagnosis and therapy and also to clean parts located in hard-to-reach places,
for example, spiral tube, electronic components etc.
b. Ultrasound is used to detect cracks and flaws in metal blocks. Such as aeroplane wings can be
checked for cracks that would be invisible on the surface.
c. Its use in scanning goes far beyond pregnancies. Many other parts of the body are analysed using
it (bladder gallstones, the heart, etc.)
d. Detection of developmental/ structural abnormalities in the fetus. Evaluation of the heart and
diagnosis of cardiac problems. This technique is called Echocardiography.
25. Explain how ultrasound waves are used to detect a flaw in an object?
Answer: The ultrasound waves are allowed to pass through metal block to which are fitted
detectors to detect the waves. Ultrasounds can be used to detect minor cracks or flaws inmetal block.
For this, ultrasonic waves are allowed to pass through metal blocks and detectors are used to detect
the transmitted waves. If there is a crack in metal block, these waves get reflected back, thus
indicating the presence of defects or flaws like cracks in themetal block.
26. Which sound wave is used in ECG (echocardiography)?
Answer: ultra sound wave
27. Give the full form of SONAR.
Answer: SONAR: Sound Navigation And Ranging
28. Name the technique used to measure the depth of a sea.
Answer: Sound ranging
29. How will you determine the depth of a sea using SONAR?
Answer: SONAR is an acronym for Sound Navigation And Ranging. It is an acoustic device used
to measure the depth, direction, and speed of under-water objects such as submarines and ship
wrecks with the help of ultrasounds. It is also used to measure the depth of seas and oceans.

A beam of ultrasonic sound is produced and transmitted by the transducer (it is a device that
produces ultrasonic sound) of the SONAR, which travels through sea water. The echo produced by
the reflection of this ultrasonic sound is detected and recorded by the detector, which is converted
into electrical signals.
The distance ( d ) of the under-water object is calculated from the time ( t ) taken by the echo to
return with speed ( v ) is given by 2d = v t .
This method of measuring distance is also known as echo-ranging.
30. How do the bats fly in dark?
Answer: Bats fly in the darkness of night without colliding with other objects by this method called
echolocation. Bats emit high-frequency ultrasonic squeaks while flying & listen to the echoes
produced by the reflection of their squeaks from the objects ( or obstacles ) in their path. From the
time taken by the echo to be heard, bats can judge the distance of the object (or obstacle) in their
path and hence avoid it by changing the direction.
Notes: Bats search their prey at night by this method only.This happens as follows : Bats emit highfrequency ultrasonic squeaks while flying & listen to the echoes produced by the reflection of their
squeaks from the prey like a flying insect.From the time taken by the echo to be heard, bats can
judge the distance of the insect & hence can catch it.
31. How RADAR is different from SONAR?
Answer: SONAR (Sound Navigation and Ranging) uses sound wave which is mechanical energy
to "look" through water or other media, and RADAR (Radio Direction and Ranging) uses
electromagnetic radiation(radio waves) to "look" through the air or other media.
RADAR signals are mostly used for ground or atmospheric observations whereas SONAR signals
are ideal for navigation and measurement under water.

32. Explain the function of ear by explaining its each part?

Answer: The outer ear is called pinna collects the sound from the surroundings. The collected
sound passes through the auditory canal . At the end of the auditory canal there is a thin membrane
called the ear drum or tympanic membrane. When a compression of the medium reaches the eardrum
the pressure on the outside of the membrane increases and forces the eardrum inward. Similarly, the
eardrum moves outward when a rarefaction reaches it. In this way the eardrum vibrates. The
vibrations are amplified several times by three bones (the hammer, anvil and stirrup) in the middle
ear. The middle ear transmits the amplified pressure variations received from the sound wave to the
inner ear. In the inner ear, the pressure variations are turned into electrical signals by the cochlea.
These electrical signals are sent to the brain via the auditory nerve, and the brain interprets them as
sound.
Note: The stirrup bone of the middle ear is the smallest bone in human body.
33. Distinguish between loudness and intensity of sound.
Answer: Intensity depends on the energy per unit area of the wave and it is independent of the
response of the ear, but the loudness depends on energy as well as on the response of the ear.
34. Why are ceilings of concert halls curved?
Answer: The ceilings of concert hall are curved, so that sound after reflection from it reaches all
the corners of the hall, and hence, is audible to everyone in the hall.
35. The frequency of a source of sound is 100 Hz. How many times does it vibrate in a minute?
Answer: Number of vibrations produced in 1 second = 100
Number of vibrations produced in 1 minute (60 s) = 100 60 = 6000.
36. Give two practical applications of the reflection of sound waves.
Answer:
(i) In stethoscope the sound of patients heartbeat reaches the doctors ears by multiple reflections
in the tubes.
(ii) Megaphones are designed to send sound waves in particular direction are based on the
reflection of sound.
37. Why are longitudinal waves called pressure waves?
Answer: Sound waves travels in the form of compression and rarefactions, which involve change in
pressure, and volume of the air. Thus they are called pressure waves.
38. Can two astronauts talk on moon as they do on the surface of the earth?
Answer: No, due to absence of medium air

39. Give four differences between transverse and longitudinal waves.

Answer:
40.