Properties of sound
A sound wave is a mechanical wave (or mechanical vibration) that transit through media such as gas (air), liquid (water), and solid (wood).
Quality Of Sound
A sound or a sound wave is defined as the energy produced due to the vibrations of particles in a medium. When any medium produces a disturbance or vibrations, it causes a movement in the air particles which produces sound waves. Molecules in the air vibrate about a certain average position and create compressions and rarefactions. This is called pitch which is defined as the frequency of sound. The frequency is defined as the number of oscillations in pressure per second.
Categories of Sound Wave
People perceive sound in different ways, like a medico student takes sound as vibration produced by objects reaching the human eardrum. A physicist perceives sound as vibration produced by an object, which produces disturbances in nearby air molecules that travel further. Both of them describe it as vibration generated by an object, the difference is one talks about how it is received and other deals with how it travels and propagates across various mediums.
You know that certain musical notes sound good together— harmonious—whereas others do not. This harmony is related to the various harmonics of the notes. The musical notes C (262 Hz) and G (392 Hz) make a pleasant
sound when played together; we call this consonance. As shown, the harmonics of the two notes are either far from each other or very close to each other (within a few Hz). This is the key to consonance: harmonics that are spaced either far apart or very close. The close harmonics have a beat frequency of a few Hz that is perceived as pleasant. If the harmonics of
two notes are close but not too close, the rather high beat frequency
between the two is quite unpleasant. This is what we hear as dissonance.
Exactly how much a difference is maximally dissonant is a matter of opinion, but harmonic separations of 30 or 40 Hz seem to be quite unpleasant for most people.
If the C were played on an organ pipe that was open at one end and closed at the other, which of the harmonic frequencies as shown would be present?
A. All of the harmonics in the figure would be present.
B. 262, 786, and 1310 Hz
C. 524, 1048, and 1572 Hz
D. 262, 524, and 1048 Hz
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