The speed of sound5/6/2023 These standing waves behave like those heavy ropes you see tethered to the wall at the gym. When sound moves back and forth inside the cavity of an oboe or a trumpet, it produces a standing wave. "And we're talking about making the speed of sound a million times bigger," Robertson said.Īnd if the speed of sound were to suddenly speed up, it would wreak havoc on orchestras, Robertson said. That's because sound waves move three times faster through helium, said William Robertson, a professor in the department of physics and astronomy at Middle Tennessee State University. To get a sense of what we'd sound like in a universe where the speed of sound moved ultra-fast, imagine how you sound when you take a deep breath out of a helium balloon - like Mickey Mouse. In sound waves, frequency translates to pitch, so what you get is a very odd sounding voice. If the sound moved faster in air, it would change the way waves added together, making certain frequencies louder and others quieter. Some sync up perfectly, while others actually interfere with one another, producing a smaller wave and a quieter sound. ![]() However, not all frequencies add together in the same way. There, waves of the same frequency add together to produce much bigger waves - which translates to louder sound. When we speak, our vocal cords vibrate to produce sound waves of many different frequencies, pumping them into the larynx, or voice box. Voices would sound particularly strange, Gollin said. ![]() ![]() An ultra-fast speed of sound would completely change the way our world sounds.
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