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This means that when sound travels from hot air to cold air or from cold air to hot air it will refract.
On a hot day the air near the ground is hot so the sound wave bends upwards from the hot air into
the cold air (Figure 1).
On a cold night the air near the ground is cold and so the sound wave bends downwards. (Figure 2)
This is why you can sometimes hear sounds from a long way away if the night air is cold.
I noticed a very interesting effect produced by the change of speed of sound in air of different
temperatures when I was singing in a carol service in Wells Cathedral in Somerset in the UK.
It was a clear starry night and the great stone walls of the cathedral were cold. At the end of one of
the choir pieces the sound travelled away into the darkness of the building and a moment later I
heard the echo as the sound reflected from the walls. The echo was not only quieter - it was flat. The
pitch of the note had gone down.
After much thought I decided that this was because it had travelled through more cold air than hot
air on its way to the walls and back and so had slowed down, therefore reducing the pitch. However
the reflected path and the transmitted path are the same length and so the effects should cancel so I
still can't really explain it fully. Has anyone any better suggestions?
I was asked this by the principal of a school I was visiting during Science Week last
year. I gave him the short answer… it travels faster through warm air.
Technically that is correct.. it does travel faster through warm air… the molecules in
the warm air are more “excited” and will vibrate more easily. Sound needs vibration
in order to work so the sound is carried more easily through the air with the more
excited molecules than through air with more “still” molecules (cold air).
A good way to think of it is to imagine a line of dominoes. The air molecules are the
dominoes.
Sound makes air molecules around the source vibrate and hit off the next molecule
which vibrates and hits of the next (just like the dominoes hitting off each other) and
the chain keeps going until the sound reaches your ear… and then the vibrations get
carried on to your middle and inner ear until they are changed to electrical pulses
that are sent to the brain!
And there was me thinking I was keeping this simple… back to the dominoes… just
keep thinking of it like a string of dominoes. Actually that is not quite true…. for the
domino model to really mimic the movement of sound you have to arrange the
dominoes in concentric circles, not in straight lines. Sound travels outwards from the
source in all directions.
So there you have it sound does travel faster in warm air BUT it may appear to
travel farther in cold air.
This is how that works…
…if the air close to the ground is colder than the air above it then sound waves
travelling upwards will be bent downwards. This is called Refraction. These
refracted sound waves can act to amplify the sound to someone standing far away.
Refraction of sound waves amplifies and focuses the sound so that it can be heard from
farther away
LECTURE 2
Reflection, Refraction, and Diffraction
Interference and Beats
The Doppler Effect and Shock Waves
Boundary Behavior
Reflection, Refraction, and Diffraction
Like any wave, a sound wave doesn't just stop when it reaches the end of the medium or when it
encounters an obstacle in its path. Rather, a sound wave will undergo certain behaviors when it
encounters the end of the medium or an obstacle. Possible behaviors include reflection off the
obstacle, diffraction around the obstacle, and transmission (accompanied by refraction) into the
obstacle or new medium. In this part of Lesson 3, we will investigate behaviors that have already
been discussed in a previous unit and apply them towards the reflection, diffraction, and refraction
of sound waves.
File:Reverberation-Garage-Clapping.ogv
3 seconds of acoustic reverberation demonstrated by clapping in an
underground carpark ...more clapping
LECTURE 3
Colours of light
EXPLORE
Light is made up of wavelengths of
light, and each wavelength is a
particular colour. The colour we see is
a result of which wavelengths are
reflected back to our eyes.
Colour mixing
The results of mixing red, green and blue
coloured light compared to the mixing of
magenta, cyan and yellow paint are
illustrated.
This is different when you are mixing
paints. Each colour of paint is absorbing
certain colours and reflecting others. Each
time another colour of paint is mixed in,
there are more colours absorbed and less
are reflected. The primary colours for
adding paints or dyes, such as for a
computer printer, are yellow, magenta
and cyan. If you mix all of these colours
together, you will absorb all the light and will only see black, because no light will be reflected back
to your eyes.
You can easily experiment with this. Hold some coloured cellophane in front of your eyes and have a
look around. Notice how some colours are changed and others look similar. Figure out which colours
are being absorbed.
Nature of science
It sometimes takes a long time for new scientific knowledge to become widespread. For example,
many people used to think that dogs could only see in black and white. It is now known that dogs
have two kinds of colour receptors that allow them to see yellows and purples. Even though the
initial experiment was done in 1989, many people are still unaware that dogs can see some colours.
LECTURE 4
Different types of Faults
A close look at faults helps geologists to understand how the tectonic plates have moved relative to
one another.
Types of movement of crustal blocks that can occur along faults during an earthquake:
4. An oblique slip involves various combinations of these basic movements, as in the 1855
Wairarapa Fault rupture, which included both reverse and dextral movement. (COM pg. 100).
Faults can be as short as a few metres and as long as 1000km. The fault rupture from an earthquake
isn’t always a straight or continuous line. Sometimes there can be short offsets between parts of the
fault, and even major faults can have large bends in them.
LECTURE 6
Visual Glossary
Earthquake
Epicenter
Focus
Earthquake-A sudden ground motion or vibration
produced by a rapid release of stored-up energy.
LECTURE 7
How do earthquakes generate tsunamis?
By far, the most destructive tsunamis are generated from
large, shallow earthquakes with an epicenter or fault line near
or on the ocean floor. These usually occur in regions of the
earth characterized by tectonic subduction along tectonic plate
boundaries. The high seismicity of such regions is caused by
the collision of tectonic plates. When these plates move past
each other, they cause large earthquakes, which tilt, offset, or
displace large areas of the ocean floor from a few kilometers to
as much as a 1,000 km or more. The sudden vertical
displacements over such large areas, disturb the ocean's
surface, displace water, and generate destructive tsunami
waves. The waves can travel great distances from the source
region, spreading destruction along their path. For example,
the Great 1960 Chilean tsunami was generated by a magnitude
9.5 earthquake that had a rupture zone of over 1,000 km. Its
waves were destructive not only in Chile, but also as far away
as Hawaii, Japan and elsewhere in the Pacific. It should be
noted that not all earthquakes generate tsunamis. Usually, it
takes an earthquake with a Richter magnitude exceeding 7.5 to
produce a destructive tsunami.
Most tsunamis are generated by shallow, great earthquakes at
subductions zones. More than 80% of the world's tsunamis occur in the
Pacific along its Ring of Fire subduction zones.
COMETS
A comet is an icy small Solar System body that, when passing
close to the Sun, warms and begins to release gases, a
process called outgassing. This produces a visible atmosphere
or coma, and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena are
due to the effects of solar radiation and the solar wind acting
upon the nucleus of the comet. Comet nuclei range from a
few hundred metres to tens of kilometres across and are
composed of loose collections of ice, dust, and small rocky
particles. The coma may be up to 15 times the Earth's
diameter, while the tail may stretch one astronomical unit. If
sufficiently bright, a comet may be seen from the Earth
without the aid of a telescope and may subtend an arc of 30°
(60 Moons) across the sky. Comets have been observed and
recorded since ancient times by many cultures
ASTEROID
Definition and
characteristics
Tropical storms,
cyclones,
hurricanes and
typhoons, although named
differently, describe the same
disaster type.
Essentially, these disaster types refer to a large scale closed circulation system in the
atmosphere which combines low pressure and strong winds that rotate counter clockwise in
the northern hemisphere and clockwise in the southern hemisphere.
The system is referred to as a "cyclone" in the Indian Ocean and and South
Pacific, "hurricane" in the Western Atlantic and Eastern Pacific and "typhoon" in the
Western Pacific.
Hurricanes and typhoons are the same storm types as "tropical cyclones"(the local name for
storms which originate in the Caribbean and China Sea region respectively).
A tropical cyclone is a non-frontal storm system that is characterised by a low pressure
center, spiral rain bands and strong winds. Usually it originates over tropical or subtropical
waters and rotates clockwise in the southern hemisphere and counter-clockwise in the
northern hemisphere. The system is fueled by heat released when moist air rises and the
water vapor it contains condenses ("warm core" storm system). Therefore the water
temperature must be >27 °C.
Cyclones, hurricanes and typhoons can be predicted several days in advance. The onset is
extensive and often very destructive. These disasters are usually more destructive than
floods.
First, in a sudden, brief onslaught, high winds cause major damage to infrastructure and
housing, in particular fragile constructions. They are generally followed by heavy rains and
floods and, in flat coastal areas, by tidal waves.
In the case of cyclones, accurate landfall predictions can give only a few hours' notice to
threatened populations. In addition, people generally opt to wait until the very last minute
before abandoning their home and possessions. Deaths from drowning in the high tides and
sudden flooding and material losses are therefore often very high.