437. The Perception of Sound
John William Strutt · Cambridge University Press eBooks · 2009
I regret that I overlooked Prof. Bayliss's letter in Nature of October 17, in which he made an appeal for my opinion. But, if I rightly understand, the question at issue seems to be mainly one of words. Can we properly speak of the propagation of sound through an incompressible fluid? I should answer, Yes. There may be periodic motion and periodic variation of pressure; the fact that there are no variations of density seems immaterial. Consider plane waves, corresponding with a pure tone, travelling through air. In every thin layer of air—and thin means thin relatively to the wavelength—there are periodic motion and periodic compression, approximately uniform throughout the layer. But the compression is not essential to the travelling of the sound. The substitution of an incompressible fluid of the same density for the gas within the layer would be no hindrance. Although there is no compression, there remain a periodic pressure and a periodic motion, and these suffice to carry on the sound. The case is even simpler if we are prepared to contemplate an incompressible fluid without mass, for then the layer need not be thin. The interposition of such a layer has absolutely no effect, the motion and pressure at the further side being the same as if the thickness of the layer were reduced to zero. To all intents and purposes the sound is propagated through the layer, though perhaps exception might be taken to the use of the word propagation . As regards the ear, we have to consider the behaviour of water. From some points of view the difference between air and water is much more one of density than of compressibility.