![diffraction of sound examples diffraction of sound examples](https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/echo-reflection-sound-waves-ultrasonic-transmitter-emits-short-burst-particular-direction-pulse-bounces-off-target-42597764.jpg)
Interestingly, sound waves bend around objects. The easiest way to describe sound propagation is by comparison with light rays. Numerical computations are carried out in full, giving the vector pressure ratio at the pole facing the source for spheres of various diameters and at various frequencies throughout the acoustic range.I understand that now (about the corner behaving as one side of an infinitely large gap). The al- ternative method of a recursive splitting up of sound particles at each diffraction was dropped to avoid an explosion of computation time. I'm just really struggling to imagine how a faster vibrating molecule of air diffracts less than a slower vibrating one? So photons with a lower frequency will have a lower momentum a lower momentum will make it "easier" to deflect.īut it's such a crude way of thinking.maybe I'm clutching at straws lol :) The only reason I can think of is a rather crude explanation by relating it to momentum of light (not sure how this would work for sound?) I'm still struggling as to why lower frequencies diffract more at a fundamental level. It isn't the frequency that counts - it's the wavelength and the result of the addition of all the possible paths between source and detector that produces nulls and peaks. You can get exactly the same interference pattern with microwaves and ultrasound waves of the same wavelength (say 3cm) where the ratio between the frequencies is around 1000. Diffraction of sound by human head is described by the diffraction formula. Your attempt to explain things in terms of the way the particles move is not valid - unless you consider all the particles in the region of the experiment (e.g. More recently The problem of sound diffraction by straight edges finds some of these solutions have gained much popularity as a several applications in acoustics, such as in room acoustical result of the simplicity of the mathematics involved in them studies and simulations (Lau and Tang, 2009 Torres et al., and the more straightforwardness in. The amount of diffraction (the sharpness of the bending) increases with increasing wavelength and decreases with decreasing wavelength. The sound is diffracted by the human head if the dimension of the head is.