Eli5: Do Sound Waves get affected by Gravity?
In: Physics
On the very most pedantic “akhtuahly” level, they are.
Sound is a mechanical wave, a motion of particles. And particle motion is affected by gravity, so sound has to be as well.
But it’s such a miniscule effect that it might as well not exist. I honestly can’t even tell if we’d have the capacity to actually ever measure it. I don’t want to be the one to calculate it.
sound waves are oscillation of air molecules. those molecules get affected by gravity, but since they are very light weight, the force for single particles is almost negligible compared to their random movement at room temperature.
however on a statistical basis, gravity has the effect that the air close to water level is more dense than the air at certain elevation levels. mby that density difference counts as a gravity effect, even though i have no idea how sound waves change due to air density.
Sort of. Sound waves are waves in a medium (air, water, …) and the atoms in that medium have mass, so they are effected by gravity.
What might this effect mean, not much. The ocean is held in place by gravity, but if you make a sound on the bottom of the ocean, its path loss getting to the surface is almost identical to the path loss from the surface to the bottom.
Sound waves are absolutely affected by density gradients, which is the result of gravity. They’ll retract towards the ground.
If you suspended an infinite particle field in an even density, then set them lose in a moderate gravity environment, there should be a small drift of the wave front towards the gravity source, id think, as the acceleration due to gravity affects the wave front.
Latest Answers