Waves are a powerful addiction...maybe we need the wave "patch"?
I've already commented on the compressibility of air in a previous post and I should probably go find it but, I'm lazy and it's easier to just write a new review so:
If you've ever read anything about supersonic flight, you will have seen comments about air being an incompressible fluid at subsonic speeds and a compressible one at supersonic speeds. That would seem to fly in the face of logic for anybody that owns an air compressor.
I had theorized (and didn't get any complaints...in fact, there were no comments about it at all) that air (or any gas) can't compress when the disturbance is subsonic because the pressure is able to move away from the point of disturbance faster than the disturber is moving. Of course, that can only happen when the air is not constrained to a fixed volume, such as an air tank.
Regarding the importance of compressibility to understanding sound in air, tha'ts pretty much what this thread is all about.
Like the Slinky and Newton's Cradle toys, this is something we could nit-pick the definitions of ad nauseum, ad infinitum...and ultimately get nowhere. So, we need to come to some sort of concensus about them. We are obviously not very close to being there...yet...but, I have high hopes of winning you over.
I'm not saying that what you are saying about waves is wrong. Just that talking about waves is the wrong venue when the subject is sound propagation.
When somebody can come up with a reasonable, conceptual expalnation of how longitudinal (or traverse) waves can act to propel a distrubance from a subsonic distruber, near instantly to Mach 1 and propagate it at Mach 1, then I'll be happy to consider waves and wave analysis to be the answer.
Air is a compressible. The compressibility and rebound from compression are important in understanding sound in air.
I agree with skyhawk regarding the piston and air sensor.
I've already commented on the compressibility of air in a previous post and I should probably go find it but, I'm lazy and it's easier to just write a new review so:
If you've ever read anything about supersonic flight, you will have seen comments about air being an incompressible fluid at subsonic speeds and a compressible one at supersonic speeds. That would seem to fly in the face of logic for anybody that owns an air compressor.
I had theorized (and didn't get any complaints...in fact, there were no comments about it at all) that air (or any gas) can't compress when the disturbance is subsonic because the pressure is able to move away from the point of disturbance faster than the disturber is moving. Of course, that can only happen when the air is not constrained to a fixed volume, such as an air tank.
Regarding the importance of compressibility to understanding sound in air, tha'ts pretty much what this thread is all about.
We have to look at how the sound/compression (they are the same thing) moves as fast as it does.
Like the Slinky and Newton's Cradle toys, this is something we could nit-pick the definitions of ad nauseum, ad infinitum...and ultimately get nowhere. So, we need to come to some sort of concensus about them. We are obviously not very close to being there...yet...but, I have high hopes of winning you over.
Perhaps if you stopped telling us how wrong we are about waves and tried to understand the application of wave theory to sound you would be closer to understanding
I'm not saying that what you are saying about waves is wrong. Just that talking about waves is the wrong venue when the subject is sound propagation.
When somebody can come up with a reasonable, conceptual expalnation of how longitudinal (or traverse) waves can act to propel a distrubance from a subsonic distruber, near instantly to Mach 1 and propagate it at Mach 1, then I'll be happy to consider waves and wave analysis to be the answer.