This means low frequencies will travel farther. Here is a graph of the attenuation of sound at difference frequencies (accounting for atmospheric pressure and humidity):Īs you can see, low frequencies are not absorbed as well. See Wikipedia for the technical details and formulas of acoustic attenuation. The attenuation of sound waves is frequency dependent in most materials. Because of this, sound is lost to heating of the medium it is propagating through. Whenever you give molecules a "push" you're going to lose some energy to heat. Remember, sound is a pressure wave vibration of molecules. If it weren't for attenuation (absorption) sound would follow an inverse square law. ![]() The reason has to do with what's stopping the sound. ![]() I found this rather cute high school experiment online, which seems to conclude that low and high frequencies travel as far, but aren't there laws that physicist wrote centuries ago about this?ĭo low frequencies carry farther than high frequencies? Yes. Perhaps also the low frequencies resonate with the walls of the building? Probably also the medium the sound travels through makes a difference? Or perhaps high frequencies are reflected more by walls than low frequencies? This makes me think that perhaps low frequencies do not carry longer distances, but the very high amplitude of the bass in my neighbor's speakers compensates for that. So with very weak sounds, high frequencies seem to travel further?
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