Sound Waves

Last week I borrowed a couple cds from the library to listen to. I was excited to have borrowed two of Coldplay's albums. After compiling the songs I liked out of the stack of cds, I downloaded them to my mp3 player. In physics, we are currently learning about waves and vibrations. I am able to listen to the cds on my stero because of the sound waves that protrud from the stero. Vibrations within the stero create sound waves that carry energy and are interpreted into sound by my ears. Vibrations are any periodic motions that move back and forth. Any kind of waves, such as sound waves, are made of vibrations that move through any medium and are classified by how particles move. Sound waves are known as longitudual waves, meaning that particles in the medium vibrate parallel to the direction the wave is traveling. As sound waves travel, they spread out and the intensity of the soud diminishes with distance.

When I turn up the volume to the stero, I change the amplitude of the sound wave by making it higher.

I didn't pay attention to how physics played a role in how my stero works until learning about this chapter. It is pretty interesting!