Beats and interference of sound waves review

Review of how to produce beats through the constructive and destructive interference of sound waves.

Pojęcia kluczowe

Term	Meaning
Beat	Regularly alternating soft and loud sound heard from two sound waves of different frequencies interfering.
Beat frequency ( $f_{B}$ ‍)	The magnitude of the difference between the two interfering frequencies. Scalar with SI units of $Hz$ ‍.

How interference produces beats

When a musician needs their instrument to have the correct sound, they produce the desired frequency and try to match it with their instrument’s frequency. If the two frequencies don’t match, they interfere to produce alternating loud and soft sounds.

Figure 1 below shows two waves with different frequencies,

f_{1}

(purple) and

f_{2}

(green). The waves are interfering constructively in the green highlighted regions, leading to a larger amplitude when the waves combine in

f_{B}

. The white highlighted regions are where destructive interference occurs, and the amplitude of

f_{B}

is smaller than the original sound waves. The variation in amplitude results in the alternating volume (loudness) of sound that we call beats.

Dowiedz się więcej

For deeper explanations of the beat frequency, see our video about beat frequency.

To check your understanding and work toward mastering these concepts, check out the exercise on analyzing the interference of sound waves.

Chcesz dołączyć do dyskusji?

Zaloguj się

Sortuj według

Na razie brak głosów w dyskusji

Rozumiesz angielski? Kliknij tutaj, aby zobaczyć więcej dyskusji na angielskiej wersji strony Khan Academy.