PSYC 100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Eardrum, Basilar Membrane, String Vibration

• School: Queen's University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 100
• Professor: Jordan Poppenk

Document Summary

Frequency: the number of peaks per second (the inverse of wavelength), used when measuring the sound. Spectrum: a graph showing the different component frequencies (or wavelengths) in a sound (or a source of light). Compression occurs at the peaks and rarefactions at the troughs of the waveform. Eight cycles or periods of the waveform are shown here (the waveform goes from a trough through zero then to a peak and back to a trough [one period] eight times). The wavelength is the distance the sound travels in one cycle. The longer the period, the longer the wavelength and the lower the frequency. Like many sounds, a guitar note contains many different frequencies. The spectrum below the waveform shows the amplitudes of the frequency components of this sound up to 3000 hz. Frequency and pitch: frequency is the number of cycles (number of periods) between high and low pressure in one second stated in units called hertz (hz).