The diagram below illustrates a sound wave generated by a speaker, with pressure and density variations in air molecules represented by the spacing of the black dots. Which colored line segment is equal to one wavelength?
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.
![**Understanding Sound Waves and Wavelengths**
The diagram below illustrates a sound wave generated by a speaker. Variations in pressure and density of air molecules are represented by the spacing of the black dots. These variations create regions known as compressions (where molecules are close together) and rarefactions (where molecules are spread apart).
**Question:**
Which colored line segment is equal to one wavelength?
**Diagram Explanation:**
1. **Speaker Icon**: Represents the source of the sound wave.
2. **Black Dots**: Indicate air molecules. Densely packed dots represent compressions, while sparsely packed dots represent rarefactions.
3. **Blue Line Segment**: A line drawn between two points in the diagram.
4. **Red Line Segment**: Another line drawn between two different points in the diagram.
**Answer Choices:**
- Neither line segment is one wavelength
- Red
- Both red and blue are one wavelength
- Blue
**Answer Key:**
- The blue line represents one wavelength as it spans from one compression to the next sequential compression, encapsulating a full cycle of the sound wave.
This illustration helps to conceptualize the characteristics of sound waves, specifically how wavelength is visualized as the distance between two corresponding points in consecutive cycles of the wave.
**Learning Objective:**
Understand how to identify one wavelength in a sound wave through the spatial representation of air molecule variations.
For further reading on sound waves and their properties, explore topics on wave frequency, amplitude, and the types of waves.](/v2/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcontent.bartleby.com%2Fqna-images%2Fquestion%2Fbb281c4c-1433-457d-b874-ad635f6dda6d%2Ff670b427-11fd-41a0-811d-677a6d87d05c%2Fybwx4qw_processed.jpeg&w=3840&q=75)
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