12 • The World Through Sound: Absorption

Welcome to our final installment of The World Through Sound. Last time, we learned about linearity, non-linearity, and how linearization allows scientists to treat complicated systems like much simpler analogs through approximation. In this article, we will explore...

11 • The World Through Sound: Linearity

Welcome to another installment of The World Through Sound. Last time, we talked about reflection and refraction, and the principle of least time that governs them. This week we will discuss linearity, superposition, and how science uses approximations to make the...

9 • The World Through Sound: Normal Modes

Welcome to another installment of The World Through Sound. Last time, we talked about resonance and why some things ring while others don’t. In this article, we will go deeper into that concept and explore normal modes, the patterns of motion that are created when...

8 • The World Through Sound: Resonance

Welcome to another installment of The World Through Sound. Last time we talked about Acoustic Impedance, and how horns are actually a kind of transformer, and operate in a way analogous to how a lever makes a large mass easier to move. In this article, we will talk...

7. The World Through Sound: Acoustic Impedance

Welcome to another installment of The World Through Sound. Previously we learned about the acoustic medium, and how sound can even move through the seeming vacuum of space, and shape entire galactic structures in the process. Today’s article is a direct follow-up to...

6 • The World Through Sound: Acoustic Medium

Welcome to the sixth installment of The World Through Sound. Last time we discussed one of the most popular units for measuring sound, the decibel , and gave a few rules of thumb to help even a non-scientist make sense of decibel values. In this edition instead of...

5 • The World Through Sound: Decibels

Welcome to the fifth installment of The World Through Sound. Last time, we discussed the concepts of equilibrium and acoustic pressure, and how almost any variation around equilibrium can bear a striking resemblance to the behavior of sound. Today, we are going to...

4 • The World Through Sound: Acoustic Pressure

Welcome to the fourth installment of The World Through Sound. In previous articles we discussed properties of sound, including sound speed, and wavelength. Today, we are going to take a step back and consider sound on a more fundamental level. We are going to discuss...

3 • The World Through Sound: Wavelength

Welcome to the third installment of “The World Through Sound,” the Acoustics Today web series that shows how understanding just a few concepts in acoustics can change the way you see the world around you. Last time we considered frequency and how the relationship...

2 • The World Through Sound: Frequency

Welcome to the second installment of “The World Through Sound,” the Acoustics Today web series that shows how understanding just a few concepts in acoustics can change the way you see the world around you. Last time, we considered sound speed, and how sound speed...

1 • The World Through Sound: Sound Speed

Welcome to the first installment of “The World Through Sound.” In this series of monthly articles on the Acoustics Today web site, we will look at interesting phenomena that you might not have noticed and show how these concepts relate to acoustics, sometimes in...