Learning outcomes

After studying this course, you should be able to:

  • explain correctly the meaning of the emboldened terms in the main text and use them correctly in context
  • describe simply what a pressure wave is and give a simple explanation of sound in terms of a travelling pressure wave
  • explain ‘cycle’ in terms of an oscillating source and the pressure wave it produces
  • relate amplitude (including peak-to-peak and r.m.s.), frequency, period and wavelength to a sinusoidal waveform
  • calculate the wavelength of a pressure wave from a graph of pressure against distance