Why can we hear sound on the lower end of the spectrum clearer through walls but the higher stuff is blocked?

Question

My parents are listening to 70s music downstairs and I can hear the drums and basslines but not anything else unless I open the door.

In: Biology

Answer 1

Lower sound frequencies lose energy slower than higher sound frequencies. Imagine you’re walking two dogs, one of them is very hyper (high frequency sound) and constantly running back and forth to smell everything it can, while the other is calmer (low frequency sound) and only occasionally goes out of its way to smell or chase something. The hyper dog is going to get tired much faster and need to stop much sooner than the calmer dog. Sound works basically the same way, high frequency sounds lose energy as they travel through their medium much faster than low frequency sounds.