Waves/Sound Waves

Sound Waves

Sound is a longitudinal compression-expansion wave through matter. The wave speed is

$c=(\gamma R{T}_{abs}{)}^{1/2}$ (2.11)

where $\gamma$ and $R$ are constants and $T_{abs}$ is the absolute temperature. The absolute temperature is measured in Kelvins and is numerically given by

$T_{abs}=T_C+273.16^{\circ }$ (2.12)

where $T_C$ is the temperature in Celsius degrees. The angular frequency of sound waves is thus given by

$\omega =ck=(\gamma R{T}_{abs}{)}^{1/2}k.$ (2.13)

The speed of sound in air at normal temperatures is about $340\text{ m}{\text{ s}}^{-1}$.

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