Shahid is playing his stereo in his bedroom. He turns the volume down to make the sound quieter. The next track on his CD has a much lower pitch. What difference will this make to the way that Shahid’s ear drum moves?
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Answer:
A sound wave traveling through a fluid medium (such as a liquid or a gaseous material) has a longitudinal nature. This means that the particles of the medium vibrate in direction which is parallel (and anti-parallel) to the direction which the sound wave travels. If the sound wave travels from west to east, then the particles of the medium vibrate back and forth along the east-west axis. As a sound wave impinges upon a particle of air, that particle is temporarily disturbed from its rest position. This particle in turn pushes upon its nearest neighbor, causing it to be displaced from its rest position. The displacement of several nearby particles produces a region of space in which several particles are compressed together. Such a region is known as a compression or high pressure region. A restoring force typically pulls each particle back towards its original rest position. As the particles are pulled away from each other, a region is created in which the particles are spread apart. Such a region is known as a rarefaction or low pressure region. Because a sound wave consists of an alternating pattern of high pressure (compressions) and low pressure (rarefactions) regions traveling through the medium, it is known as a pressure wave.