Abstract
USING an improved form of apparatus previously described by Timbrell1, one of us (T. F. W. E.) has found certain anomalies in the rate of distortion of sound pulses of finite amplitude propagated in air contained in a wide tube. This communication is concerned with the behaviour of those sound pulses of finite amplitude in which the leading half-cycle of the wave is one of rarefaction. This type of waveform could be formed in either of two ways : (a) by direct generation at a loud-speaker placed at one end of the propagation tube, or (b) by the reflexion of a leading compression pulse (generated by the loudspeaker) at the end of the tube when it is open to the atmosphere—the back-travelling pulse will have a leading rarefaction due to phase-change at reflexion.
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References
Timbrell, V., Nature, 167, 306 (1951).
Stokes, G. G., Phil. Mag. (3), 33, 349 (1948).
Chester, W., Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc., A, 242, 527 (1950).
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BARBER, G., EMBLETON, T. Saw-toothed Wave-forms in Sound. Nature 172, 1057–1058 (1953). https://doi.org/10.1038/1721057a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/1721057a0
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