In this illustrated physics tutorial, students learn about sound wave behaviors and apply them to the reflection, diffraction, and refraction of sound waves.

By the end of this section, you will be able to define antinode, node, fundamental, overtones, and harmonics; identify instances of sound interference in everyday situations; describe how sound interference occurring inside open and...

A discussion of refraction and its application to sound waves. Using analogies, graphics and real-life applications, this page and those that accompany it explain why and when sound waves bend.

This tutorial looks at the behavior of sound waves, specifically focusing upon sound interference and beats. Learn more about it and then take a short quiz to check your understanding.

Provides a simple explanation of how sound waves travel and gives a long list of facts about sound waves.

By the end of this section, you will be able to define intensity, sound intensity, and sound pressure level and to calculate sound intensity levels in decibels (dB).

Discusses the physics of how sound travels. Includes a video of a volcanic eruption that demonstrates the speed of sound waves.

This physics tutorial invites users to discover how sound is a pressure wave. Be sure to view the animation.

Through illustrated diagrams and interactive practice examples, students explore the physics of sound in open-end air column musical instruments.

Through illustrated diagrams and interactive practice examples, students explore the physics of sound in closed-end air column musical instruments.

The focus of this physics tutorial is on the application of mathematical relationships and standing wave concepts to musical instruments in three general categories of instruments: instruments with vibrating strings, open-end air column...

An animation explaining how sound travels and demonstrating how sound transmission is affected by environment.

Extensive information about how waves behave in an elastic medium. Covers different types of waves, their characteristics and behavior, the anatomy of the ear, the speed of sound in different media, the parts of a wave, and wave phenomena.

The concept of pitch and frequency is covered in this tutorial. Learn what frequency and pitch are, the difference between infra sound and ultrasonic frequencies, and how pitch is related to the frequency of a sound.

Information about the interference of sound and its causes. Well-illustrated and good explanations of the concepts; part of a large hyper-textbook on various physics concepts.

Just how loud does a sound have to be for us to hear it? And how loud is too loud for our ears? Learn to measure levels of sound in this project, and discover the amazing auditory range your ears can detect in the noisy world around you.

For musical instruments and other objects that vibrate in regular and periodic fashion, the harmonic frequencies are related to each other by simple whole number ratios. Students learn why these whole number ratios exist for a musical...

This interactive activity from A Science Odyssey tracks the journey of a sound wave from the moment a musician sings into a microphone until his voice reaches the vibrating speakers of an AM Radio.

This site's entry is a discussion of diffraction and its application to acoustics and acoustical design. Exceptional illustrations and great discussion throughout.

At this site from the Nobel e-Museum, you can read about the scientific work of Lord Rayleigh (1842-1919 CE). This article includes information on his education and experiments with light and sound waves.

Students discover wave interference, the phenomenon that occurs when two waves meet while traveling along the same medium.

Students will learn that scientists use seismic technology (sound waves) to map patterns of rock formations below the surface of the earth and that different types of rocks affect sound waves.

An experiment to create a device using cardboard tubes that will separate a mixture of sounds in a background into their different frequencies, from low to high depending on the tube length.

Here is described a simple process to 'put a voice on a sunbeam' and transmit it over a distance. It is a fascinating example of amplitude modulation of light using sound vibrations. It then describes how the modulated light is detected...