How Sound Is Perceived and How It Is Perceived

Besides the speed of sound, there are other things to be considered when studying sound. These things include the sound's loudness, its duration and its spatial location.

Speed of sound in air

Among the many factors that affect the speed of sound in air, one of the most important is temperature. Speed of sound is a measure of the shortest time that a disturbance can travel through a medium. This is dependent on the medium's density, temperature, pressure, and composition.

The speed of sound in air increases by about 0.6 m/s for every degree Celsius of increase in temperature. In addition to temperature, humidity also contributes to the speed of sound.

For example, the speed of sound in air at 68degF is approximately 1130 ft/sec. Similarly, the speed of sound in air at 20 degC is approximately 343.2 m/s.

Unlike in water, there are no simple formulas for calculating the speed of sound in air. Instead, there are a number of complicated equations. These are derived from the continuity equation from Fluid Mechanics. These equations are based on the properties of the medium and the kinetic energy of the particles.

Generally, the speed of sound in air is about 75% of the mean atom movement speed. This speed is also a result of the density of the medium. A dense medium has more closely packed molecules, and this increases the speed of sound. It also has more interactions with other molecules.

Duration of a sound

Several studies have investigated the differences between damped and ramped sounds in their subjective duration. The results are generally consistent with a single, perceptually-immediate difference. Several factors may be responsible for this asymmetry, including the way in which the sound is evaluated.

The short duration of damped sounds may be due to a decay suppression mechanism. The mechanism works by shortening the perceived duration of damped tones with a fixed frequency. However, it does not explain the entire difference in subjective duration between damped tones with a fixed frequency and a ramped sound.

The same mechanism may also be responsible for the short subjective duration of damped sweeps. It is not clear whether the mechanism is a byproduct of the short duration of damped sweeps, or a byproduct of the short duration of damped fixed tones.

The third order non-linear regression model included sound duration as the dependent variable. It also included a dynamic fo interval and fo level. The result was an r2 value of 11.6%. Moreover, the effect size was large. This means that the duration of a sound with a changing rate was predicted to be about 23 ms shorter than that of a sound without any change in rate.

Loudness of a sound

Depending on the sound source and the listener's sensitivity to sound, loudness is an important acoustic property. Whether it is a clap, a whisper, a car horn, or a loud conversation, loudness is the measure of how intense a sound is.

In general, the loudness of a sound can be measured in decibels. The acoustic property that explains the loudness of a sound is the ability to distinguish different sounds of the same frequency. This property is determined by three factors: frequency, amplitude, and pitch.

Frequency is related to the wavelength of a wave, and the higher the frequency, the higher the pitch. A wave with a higher frequency will have more oscillations per second. Higher frequency waves will also have a larger amplitude, meaning the sound is louder.

The decibel scale, or dBA scale, is a measure of the intensity of a sound. The decibel is an objective measurement, and the scale stretches from 0 dB at the ear's threshold of hearing to 140 dB at the ear's pain threshold.

Spatial location of a sound

Detecting the spatial location of a sound source is a difficult task. This problem has been studied by ancient Greeks and psychoacousticians throughout the first half of the twentieth century. However, researchers still do not fully understand the characteristics of 3D sound perception.

To detect the spatial location of a sound source, an acoustic analysis device is used. This device consists of a microphone and a reflective surface. The acoustic waves are reflected from the reflector and analyzed by the microphone. The analysis process compares the acoustic waves to a priori data. The phase angle of the detected waves represents the spatial location of the sound source.

The spatial location of the sound source can be determined by comparing the phase angle of the detected waves to the phase signature table. The phase signature table contains phase angles for every wave emitted by the sound source. The phase signature table associates phase angles with the frequencies that were detected at each spatial location.