Term | Definition |
Sound is caused by | vibrations |
Medium | any material through which a wave travels (solid, liquid, gas) |
Sound can not travel through | a vacuum |
Intensity | the amount of energy in a sound, or loudness |
Pitch | how low or high a sound is |
Echo | a reflected sound wave |
Reverberation | repeated echoes of sound |
crest | highest point of a wave |
trough | lowest point of a wave |
wavelength | the distance between two crests or two troughs |
frequency | how many wavelengths pass a fixed point each second |
amplitude | height of a wave |
rest positon | describes a wave at rest, not passing on energy |
ultrasonic waves | sound waves that have frequencies above the human range of hearing |
Sound will travel fastest through a | solid - steel |
Sound waves can be absorbed by materials such as | carpet, curtains, foam |
Sound waves can be reflected by materials such as | bare walls, caves, mountain tops |
compressions | dense regions of sound waves where molecules push together |
rarefactions | less dense regions of sound waves where molecules spread apart |
Sonar | used by ships and submarines - a system that uses reflected sound waves to detect and locate objects underwater |
Echolocation | the use of reflected sound waves to determine distances or to locate objects |
Sonar and Echolocation | use ultrasonic sound waves to detect objects or prey |
hammer, anvil, stirrup | amplify sound |
cochlea | has nerve fibers that vibrate to pick up different pitches |
auditory nerve | sends electrical impulses to the brain for interpretation |
Eustachian tube | helps drain fluid from the middle ear |
Hearing Aid | electronic device worn to amplify sound |
Cochlear Implant | surgically implanted device that sends electrical impulses to the auditory nerve |