Mechanism of Propagation of Sound

Let Us Learn About Mechanism of Propagation of Sound

In the laboratory, the propagation of sound can be observed in following ways:

Take a tuning fork and a hard pad. Allow the tuning fork to strike the pad which makes the prongs to vibrate. When it starts vibrating, the inward and outward movements takes place in prong which causes the movement of inward and outward towards the mean position.The tuning fork is given as,

The vibaration of the tuning fork produces the compressions and refractions of the sound in the air,

When the tuning fork vibrates in air, they force the particles of the air to vibrate back and forth by a small distance. While vibrating, when the prong moves to the right side, it sends out a compression and when the prong moves to the left, it produces a rarefraction in air.

The longitudinal waves in series produce compressions and rarefractions in air from the tuning fork.These compressions and rarefractions of sound waves is formed by the vibrating particles causing vibration in the ears, the eardrum vibrates for reproduction of sound.

Thus they require air molecules for sound propagation from one place to another. In other words, material medium is needed for the sound propagation.