Studying the Acoustical Effects of Reverberation

School Name

Dutch Fork High School

Grade Level

10th Grade

Presentation Topic

Physics

Presentation Type

Non-Mentored

Abstract

The acoustical reverberation of a room affects both music and speech, so it is valuable to develop physical methods to evaluate the acoustics. This project studies and develops techniques for measuring reverberant sound intensity and decay time for comparing acoustics of different rooms The results of this project could benefit designs of classrooms and other spaces used for speech and conversation.Three rooms were compared: a bedroom, a foyer, and a bathroom. In the first experiment, the relationship between sound level and distance (1/r^2) was measured to understand the strength of reverberation, by playing a steady sound source and measuring the sound intensity using a smartphone and a laptop. To understand the duration of the reverberation, the same procedures were followed, except the steady sound was stopped and analyzed using an oscilloscope software on a laptop. The analysis showed that the reverberation strength increased with decreased absorption and the duration increased with volume in the expected way. The connection between these physical measurements and speech clarity is being studied and will be discussed.

Location

Neville 306

Start Date

4-14-2018 9:15 AM

Presentation Format

Oral Only

COinS
 
Apr 14th, 9:15 AM

Studying the Acoustical Effects of Reverberation

Neville 306

The acoustical reverberation of a room affects both music and speech, so it is valuable to develop physical methods to evaluate the acoustics. This project studies and develops techniques for measuring reverberant sound intensity and decay time for comparing acoustics of different rooms The results of this project could benefit designs of classrooms and other spaces used for speech and conversation.Three rooms were compared: a bedroom, a foyer, and a bathroom. In the first experiment, the relationship between sound level and distance (1/r^2) was measured to understand the strength of reverberation, by playing a steady sound source and measuring the sound intensity using a smartphone and a laptop. To understand the duration of the reverberation, the same procedures were followed, except the steady sound was stopped and analyzed using an oscilloscope software on a laptop. The analysis showed that the reverberation strength increased with decreased absorption and the duration increased with volume in the expected way. The connection between these physical measurements and speech clarity is being studied and will be discussed.