Diffraction involves the bending or spreading out of a sound wave in a single medium, in which the speed of sound is constant. Another important case in which sound waves bend or spread out is called refraction. This phenomenon involves the bending of a sound wave owing to changes in the wave’s speed. Refraction is the reason why ocean waves approach a shore parallel to the beach and why glass lenses can be used to focus light waves. An important refraction of sound is caused by the natural temperature gradient of the atmosphere. Under normal conditions the Sun heats the Earth and the Earth heats the adjacent air. The heated air then cools as it rises, creating a gradient in which atmospheric temperature decreases with elevation by an amount known as the adiabatic lapse rate. Because sound waves propagate faster in warm air, they travel faster closer to the Earth. This greater speed of sound in warmed air near the ground creates Huygens’ wavelets that also spread faster near the ground. Because a sound wave propagates in a direction perpendicular to the wave front formed by all the Huygens’ wavelets, sound under these conditions tends to refract upward and become “lost.” The sound of thunder created by lightning may be refracted upward so strongly that a shadow region is created in which the lightning can be seen but the thunder cannot be heard. This typically occurs at a horizontal distance of about 22.5 kilometres (14 miles) from a lightning bolt about 4 kilometres high.

At night or during periods of dense cloud cover, a temperature inversion occurs; the temperature of the air increases with elevation, and sound waves are refracted back down to the ground. Temperature inversion is the reason why sounds can be heard much more clearly over longer distances at night than during the day—an effect often incorrectly attributed to the psychological result of nighttime quiet. The effect is enhanced if the sound is propagated over water, allowing sound to be heard remarkably clearly over great distances.

Refraction is also observable on windy days. Wind, moving faster at greater heights, causes a change in the effective speed of sound with distance above ground. When one speaks with the wind, the sound wave is refracted back down to the ground, and one’s voice is able to “carry” farther than on a still day. When one speaks into the wind, however, the sound wave is refracted upward, away from the ground, and the voice is “lost.”

Another example of sound refraction occurs in the ocean. Under normal circumstances the temperature of the ocean decreases with depth, resulting in the downward refraction of a sound wave originating under water—just the opposite of the shadow effect in air described above. Many marine biologists believe that this refraction enhances the propagation of the sounds of marine mammals such as dolphins and whales, allowing them to communicate with one another over enormous distances. For ships such as submarines located near the surface of the water, this refraction creates shadow regions, limiting their ability to locate distant vessels.

Reflection

A property of waves and sound quite familiar in the phenomenon of echoes is reflection. This plays a critical role in room and auditorium acoustics, in large part determining the adequacy of a concert hall for musical performance or other functions. In the case of light waves passing from air through a glass plate, close inspection shows that some of the light is reflected at each of the air-glass interfaces while the rest passes through the glass. This same phenomenon occurs whenever a sound wave passes from one medium into another—that is, whenever the speed of sound changes or the way in which the sound propagates is substantially modified.

The direction of propagation of a wave is perpendicular to the front formed by all the Huygens’ wavelets. As a plane wave reflects off some reflector, the reflector directs the wave fronts formed by the Huygens’ wavelets just as a light reflector directs light “rays.” The same law of reflection is followed for both sound and light, so that focusing a sound wave is equivalent to focusing a light ray.

Reflectors of appropriate shape are used for a variety of purposes or effects. For example, a parabolic reflector will focus a parallel wave of sound onto a specific point, allowing a very weak sound to be more easily heard. Such reflectors are used in parabolic microphones to collect sound from a distant source or to choose a location from which sound is to be observed and then focus it onto a microphone. An elliptical shape, on the other hand, can be used to focus sound from one point onto another—an arrangement called a whispering chamber. Domes in cathedrals and capitols closely approximate the shape of an ellipse, so that such buildings often possess focal points and function as a type of whispering chamber. Concert halls must avoid the smooth, curved shape of ellipses and parabolas, because strong echoes or focusing of sound from one point to another are undesirable in an auditorium.