Why is reflected sound louder

To verify the reflecting sound explanation, try doing the same experiment, but move so your ear is not in a line of sight with the speaker. The sound should now be quieter than without the tube, rather than louder, since your hand is now reflecting the sound away from your ear, rather than towards it. Sign up or log in Sign up using Google. Sign up using Facebook. Sign up using Email and Password. Post as a guest Name. Email Required, but never shown.

Featured on Meta. Now live: A fully responsive profile. Related 6. Hot Network Questions. Question feed. There is a misconception that echo is a reverberation synonym. They are actually two different sonic phenomena. The main similarity between the two is that both reverberation and echo happen after a sound has been made. We can see the difference when we define reverb and define echo.

An echo is a sound wave that has been reflected or otherwise returned with sufficient magnitude and delay to be detectable as a wave distinct from that which was directly transmitted.

Reverberation, on the other hand, happens when sound persists as a result of repeated reflection or scattering after the sound source has stopped. So while an echo is a distinct sound, reverberated sounds are difficult to hear clearly because the reflections keep repeating. Basically, echos often sound very clear because the magnitude of the sound and the distance it travels makes it sound distinct.

Reverberation can muddy the sonic waters of your environment because soundwaves reflecting off multiple surfaces pile on top of each other. Reverberation is the accumulation of soundwaves in a space. Because reverberated sounds stack up, they can make direct communication difficult because there is so much ambient sound and the direct sound can get lost. When that happens, people tend to speak up to be heard over the din which only causes more reverb, and the cycle continues.

When using a microphone, speaking publicly, or performing live, some reverb will help give your sound a richer, warmer feeling. On a recording, simulating reverb using software helps create the sonic illusion that the listener is in an actual space with the musician. This is why designers of lecture halls, theaters, and concert venues pay particular attention to the reverberative qualities of their venues. So………………now you have an open space, and you have reflective noise with refracting sound waves that is causing reverberation and your space is just plain LOUD!!!!!!

How do we stop it? Remember this? We need to get absorption materials into the space that are much more effective at absorbing sound than the existing surfaces in the space. Thankfully, we have many options to consider but how do we know which material is correct and how much of the material to use? To answer those questions, we need to understand one more technical term. A Sabin is a scientific term for a unit of measurement of sound absorption. It is calculated by using one square foot and assigning a maximum value of 1.

If you are using the metric system, you would use one square meter as your reference size and it would yield a value of 1. Any material tested will produce so many Sabins per square foot or per square meter depending on your standard of reference.