Longitudinal wave and seismic P-waves (created by earthquakes and explosions). In longitudinal waves, the displacement of the medium is parallel to the propagation of the wave, and waves can be either straight or round. A wave along the length of a stretched Slinky toy, where the distance between coils increases and decreases, is a good visualization. In the case of longitudinal harmonic sound waves, the frequency and wavelength can be described by the formula where: The quantity "x"/"c" is the time that the wave takes to travel the distance "x". The ordinary frequency ("f") of the wave is given by The wavelength
Sound power temperature, the sound power level at distance "r" from the sound source is approximately related to sound pressure level (SPL) by where Derivation of this equation: For a "progressive" spherical wave, where "z" is the characteristic specific acoustic impedance. Consequently, and since by definition , where is the reference sound pressure, The sound power estimated practically does not depend on distance. The sound pressure used in the calculation may be affected by distance due to viscous effects in the propagation of sound unless this is accounted for. Sound power Sound power or acoustic power is the rate at which sound