Created by Mr. Hemmert

SOUND WAVES

Alabama Course of StudyP2. Compare different pitches of sound

produced by changing the size, tension, amount, or type of vibrating material.

Review__________ is how high, or low a sound is.

Pitch

Review___________ measures how loud or soft a

sound is.

Intensity

ReviewWhat do we use to measure the intensity

of common sounds?

Decibel (dB)

Sound Waves

WavelengthWavelength

describes the distance between the two points on a wave.

Image from: http://science.hq.nasa.gov

FrequencyFrequency is the number of waves that pass

in a second.

AmplitudeAmplitude

describes how much energy a wave has by the height of the sound wave.

For transverse waves, you measure the amplitude by starting at the rest position to the top of the wave.

Frequency and PitchRemember that pitch describes

how high or low a sound is and frequency refers to the number of waves that pass in a second or a given amount of time.

If the frequency of a sound wave is high and the waves are close together, then the pitch is going to be high also.

If the frequency of a sound wave is low and the sound waves are spread far apart, then the pitch will be low.

Frequency and Pitch

Which animal do you think would produce a high frequency sound wave?

Image: norcalblogs.com

Amplitude and LoudnessRemember that intensity describes how

loud or soft a sound can be and the amplitude measures the intensity of a sound wave. Therefore, sound waves with larger amplitudes are louder.

Open your book to page 419 and look at the image on the right.

Measuring Sound WavesTo measure sound waves, you can use an

oscilloscope (uh-sil-uh-skohp). This instrument has a screen on the front

that displays a picture of sound waves.

Resources http://scifiles.larc.nasa.gov/text/kids/Probl

em_Board/problems/sound/sound_waves2.html (Frequency and Pitch)