Unit 5: Sound and Waves

Unit Learning Goals:

By the end of this unit, students will….

• demonstrate an understanding of the properties of mechanical waves, sound, and the principles underlying their production, transmission, interaction, and reception.

•  explain how an instrument produces a "note" and experimentally assess the quality of these instruments using Fourier Transforms and waveform analysis.

• investigate, in qualitative and quantitative terms, the properties of mechanical waves and sound, and solve related problems;

• analyse how mechanical waves and sound affects technology, structures, society, and the environment, and assess ways of reducing their negative effects;

• experimentally measure the speed of sound in a variety of different ways, compare their results to theoretical calculations, and explain the reason for a discrepancy in results.

TOPICS

Basics of Sound

• Properties

• Production

• Intensity

Wave Properties

• Wave Equation

• Reflection

• Super positioning

Beats

Sonic Boom and Doppler Shift

Resonance

• Mechanical

• Sound

Harmonics and Overtones(Instruments)

Feedback

Sound Quality

• Consonance

• Dissonance

• Fourier Transforms