Have you ever wondered how different frequencies are possible in sound waves when air molecules act like masses on a spring? #soundwaves #frequencies #airmolecules
How do air molecules functioning as masses on a spring allow for the creation of various frequencies in sound waves? Let’s dive deeper into this fascinating concept! #science #physics #acoustics
Exploring the physics behind sound waves and the behavior of air molecules can shed light on how different frequencies can be achieved. #physics #soundwaves #frequencies
Understanding the relationship between air molecules and sound wave frequencies can provide valuable insights into the complex nature of acoustics. Let’s unravel this mystery together! #acoustics #airmolecules #frequencies
Sound waves do not propagate by exciting vibrational modes of air molecules. They are a traveling wave, and all traveling waves are propagated by an interaction between adjacent volumes of the medium. In the case of sound waves in air, the interaction force is pressure – a small volume of air will exert pressure on the surrounding volumes of air. Molecules are not needed to propagate sound. Monatomic gasses like helium can propagate sound too.
While a ripple in the surface of water is not a longitudinal wave like sound, it is a traveling wave, and can be used as an analogy. The water molecules in the ripple need not be in excited vibrational modes to cause the wave to travel. Instead, when a bit of water at the surface rises up in a ripple, it lowers the pressure on the adjacent bits of water, causing them to rise up too.
You get a fixed frequency if you have particles attached to a fixed point with springs, but that’s not a realistic model for air (or anything else). If you model a medium as many particles with springs in between each other then you can excite this arrangement with different frequencies.
You get a maximal frequency, which corresponds to each particle oscillating in opposite phase to its neighbor, but no minimal frequency.
The other comment has covered the propagation of sound wave well but I want to comment that your thinking is not completely wrong. Matter do have their intrinsic vibrations frequencies, but they are much much higher than common sound waves so that almost all acoustic modes are allowed. But we can use high frequency electromagnetic waves, or IR light, to see these intrinsic vibrations of molecules and derives their structures. In fact, the IR spectrum is the main method we use to probe interstellar molecules.