Sound and Wave words
wavelength| The distance between one peak or crest of a wave of
light, heat, or other energy and the next corresponding peak or crest.
amplitude| The height of a crest (or the depth of a trough) of a wave.
frequency| Number of waves that pass a fixed point per unit time.
crest| The top, as of a wave.
hertz| A unit of frequency equal to one cycle per second.
elasticity| The property of returning to an initial form or state following
deformation.
longitudinal| A wave with oscillations or vibrations along or parallel to
their direction of travel.
medium| The matter a wave travels through.
pitch| The distinctive quality of a sound, dependent primarily on the
frequency of the sound waves produced by its source.
transverse| A wave in which the direction of the disturbance at each
point of the medium is perpendicular to the wave vector and parallel to
surfaces of constant phase.
compression| A wave propagated by means of the compression of a
fluid, as
a sound wave in air.
rarefaction| A decrease in density and pressure in a medium, such as
air, caused by the passage of a sound wave.
intensity| The amount or degree of strength of electricity, light, heat,
or sound per unit area or volume.
decibel| A unit used to express relative difference in power or intensity,
usually between two acoustic or electric signals, equal to ten times the
common logarithm of the ratio of the two levels.
timbre| The combination of qualities of a sound that distinguishes it
from other sounds of the same pitch and volume.
acoustics| The total effect of sound, especially as produced in an
enclosed space.
resonance| Intensification and prolongation of sound, especially of a
musical tone, produced by sympathetic vibration.
reverberation| The persistence of sound in an enclosed space (such as
a room or auditorium) after a source of sound has stopped.
Doppler Effect| A change in the observed frequency of a wave, as of
sound or light, occurring when the source and observer are in motion
relative to each other, with the frequency increasing when the source
and observer approach each other and decreasing when they move
apart. The motion of the source causes a real shift in frequency of the
wave, while the motion of the observer produces only an apparent
shift in frequency.