What is sound?

Sound is a vibration that we are able to detect via our ears. Typically, when we hear something, it's via the air, but we can hear via water, or via another mechanism that is picked up by our ears.

However, let's just deal with sound picked up from the air. What is it? Sound is the sequence of compression and rarification of the air or medium. As the compression and rarification come closer together, this raises it's frequency, and slower periods represent a lower frequency. A single frequency is easily represented as a sine wave, and is often called pitch. As the power of the wave increases, this changes the amplitude, and this is also referred to as loudness.

These two aspects, amplitude and pitch, make up the simplest wave of sound. Most sounds that we hear are composed of a multitude of waves, and become a complex waveform. The human ear can hear frequencies between 50hz to 21Khz, but we can detect higher frequencies and higher harmonics.

The unit of measure of amplitude is the decibel. Regular conversations are around 80db, rock concerts around 110db, and a plane taking off is around 125db. The threshhold of pain is around 130db, but damage can occur at a much lower db rating, so care should always be taken as the sound source becomes louder.

Hope this helps, and for more information click on the following links:
PA Systems,
Soundproofing, or
Email us!