The distant rumble of a train, a twig snapping in a quiet forest, and turning the pages of a crisp, new book are all sounds, yet each sound is completely different. You know what sound is when you hear it, but the question remains: what is it, really? How do you define it? Look no further. Here we will cut out as much jargon as possible and simply define sound. Soon, you will be able to understand how to make the places you spend your time in (offices, homes, apartments, dorms, vans, shacks on the beach) sound more pleasant to you.

Understanding Soundwaves

Instead of going to the typical squiggly line diagram to describe soundwaves, lets try an experiment. Snap your fingers next to your ears, a loud but not a hard snap. This time don’t put as much pressure between your fingers, make it a soft snap. You will initially hear your fingers snapping together, but if you pay close attention, you can feel the change of pressure near your ear, a small thump of wind. You have just experienced soundwaves.

To create sound, something needs to happen that displaces air particles. Just like when you snapped your fingers. Take the example of slamming a car door. When the door closes there is a surge of air particles sent moving away from the door. These air particles run into other air particles (compression). This leaves behind a low-pressure zone (rarefaction) that then fills with air, which makes another low-pressure zone that gets filled. These soundwaves travel, and then they meet an eardrum. The eardrum vibrates and our brains process the vibrations as sound.

Wavelength

The distance between one compression and the next is known as the wavelength. The further apart the compressions, the longer the wavelength is, and the lower the sound is. Think traffic on the freeway as an example. On the other hand, the shorter the distance between waves, the shorter the wavelength, and the higher pitch the sound will be, like a whistle.

The bigger soundwaves are, the more powerfully they hit our eardrums. So, some sounds are loud, annoying, and sometimes unbearable while others are soothing and enjoyable.

The Importance of Acoustics

Enjoying sounds is more than sound entering your ear. Buildings and rooms play an important role in how you perceive sounds. Acoustics are how the properties of a room or building effects sound. If a place is empty and has tall, flat walls, then soundwaves will bounce off the walls and create an echo. If you have ever walked around an empty house and it echoes when anyone talks and it sound far away, that is because there is nothing to soften or absorb the soundwaves.

Perceiving sound has much to do with how close we are to the source of the sound and the shape of where we are and the material it is made from. In many places the acoustics cause the sound to bounce off hard surfaces, which makes it difficult to hear clearly.  Analyzing a room, house, or any other place can help you know where you can soften the acoustics to make the acoustics more pleasant.

No matter where you are, there are sounds moving through the air, making a symphony of noises that bounce off the sides of trains and trucks and graze the surface of walls and ceilings, creating a constant connection between soundwaves and the surfaces they collide with.