Applications of Conics in Acoustics essays

Applications of Conics in Acoustics essays Acoustic is defined as of or relating to sound, or the science of sound. Of the four major conic sections, ellipses and parabolas can have special applications in this science. Some common applications of these are the use of elliptical shape for whispering alleys and a parabolic shape in most speakers. are the same distance from a given point, called the focus, and a given line, the directrix. The vertical line represents the directrix. The point labeled F is the focus of the parabola. The distances d1 and d2 are equal. The curve of a parabola causes any object that travels from the focus to the parabola to bounce in a direction perpendicular to the directrix away from the parabola. This in turn causes any object or wave that comes into the parabola perpendicularly to the directrix to be bounced and reflected directly at the focus of the parabola. Such reflective properties can be especially useful in such devices as parabolic receptor and speakers. A speaker with a parabolic shape can originate the sound vibrations at the focus, and then bounce them off the walls of the speaker to produce concentrated and directed sound waves. The drawing shows how an incoming ray bounces from the parabola to the focus, then away. This is also a very effective technique to use when you want to project a sound to a particular area. This technique has many applications such as in concert halls and auditoriums. When you want to project a sound to a particular spot instead of a larger area, two parabolas are needed. The first parabola reflects the sound from its focus in a straight line to the second parabola. This parabola will then receive the sound waves, and they will all be reflected into the focus of this parabola at the same time. The reflective properties of parabolas are also used in parabolic microphones. Parabolic microphones use this method to pick up sound waves from very large distances. For these microphones to w ...