Hmmm.... (Contemplating soundwaves/physics and crap)

[Omega]

Alright. I was just thinking. since forces must transfer equally to another force (like if you stop a car, the brakes use friction force, which is converted to heat, which is dissapated into the air around the caliper/drum), then how the hell do soundwaves transfer forces? you may notice that the farther away you are from the source, the harder it is to hear. Do the soundwaves travel through the air, converting to heat energy or something?

Now i am so confused x.x

[CanaBalistic]

Search for a movie called "What the bleep do we know"

[crenn]

Sound waves are actually airflow with compressions.

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/sound/wavplt.html#c2

That should help slightly^

[Omega]

I know about the air compression and frequencies/etc.

like higher pitched noises have higher Hz ratings

i can hear something that is 60,000hz

(if when you turn on your TV, and you hear a real high pitched noise, that's the flyback transformer, and it releases a 60,000hz noise)

[crenn]

How do you know that is 60kHz? I say this as the max a human can hear is 22kHz if I remember correctly... unless you're really sensitive to sound.

[Omega]

How do you know that is 60kHz? I say this as the max a human can hear is 22kHz if I remember correctly... unless you're really sensitive to sound.


One of the teachers at our school, Dr. Immel, knows ****ing EVERYTHING.

We call him god.


And he actually did a test with a synthesizer on the whole shop class, a "raise your hand if you can hear this" thing, and when it got really high up there (in the 40-60khz range), all but a few people couldn't hear it.

[crenn]

Interesting, I'm only going by what's in my textbook.... but that is interesting.... Hmm.....

[Omega]

Interesting, I'm only going by what's in my textbook.... but that is interesting.... Hmm.....


Yeah, questioning the knowledge of Dr. Immel means you gotta find one of the textbooks and look it up, and if it's not in one of his textbooks, you gotta look online.


He does the same things with words, and man, he has a BIG dictionary.

[xmastree]

you may notice that the farther away you are from the source, the harder it is to hear.Because they spread out as they get further from the source. If you imagine, say, a 10" diameter speaker, vibrating such that the cone moves +/- 1/2", then you have a volume of 78.55 cubic inches of air moving.
Now, that sound travels out as a cone, the diameter gets bigger the further it is from the source. So once it reaches a diameter of, say 20" the same volume of air will be spread out over a larger area and only be moving +/- 1/8" so it's quieter.

[Rankenphile]

xmas tree nailed it.

[Slug Toy]

i had a long looooooooooooooooooooooooong think about this, and i have come to an ultimate (and probably completely wrong) conclusion.

a tiny bit of the energy involved in sound waves probably turns to heat... maybe less than 1%. id say this is because of the collisions between molecules in the air. the big question is what happens to the rest of that energy, just like the original question here.

electricity? no, unless a device measures the sound and creates an impulse
chemical? no, we're not forming new molecules
nuclear? no, we arent creating or ruining atoms
magnetic? no, not in air, although sound waves in metals probably do
light? no, but it would be the coolest thing ever

anyways, by process of elimination, i boiled this down to..... the motion continues on and on until it just integrates with airflows within the room or area this sound was created in. im also sure that as this happens, even more heat is produced (even though it is a very small amount) and energy is further lost.

so basically what probably happens is an extension of xmastree's explanation until the end of a distinct direction of motion, along with a bit of heat.

now is that the most awesome idea? or is it just awesome?

[Omega]

Slug, that was what i was thinking; but xmas's explanation makes more sense