Home▸Physics & Mechanics▸Acoustics & Sound Waves

🔊 Acoustics & Sound Waves — Real-Time Wave Physics

Interactive acoustics simulation: watch sound as a pressure wave rippling outward from a vibrating source. Adjust frequency, amplitude, speed of sound and damping in real time.

Physics & Mechanics3DEasy60 FPS

This simulation visualises sound as what it physically is: a mechanical pressure wave spreading through a medium from a vibrating source, not a picture or a beam. Every particle in the field oscillates in place while the disturbance itself travels outward.

🔬 What It Demonstrates

A grid of particles represents the medium. Each particle's vertical displacement and colour follow the wave equation y(r, t) = A · sin(kr − ωt) · e^(−damping·r), so compression and rarefaction bands ripple outward from the source exactly as pressure zones do in real air.

🎮 How to Use

Drag Frequency and Amplitude to change pitch and loudness, Speed of sound to see how the medium changes propagation, and Damping to control how quickly the wave loses energy. Press Pulse to send a single expanding wavefront instead of a continuous tone, or Restart to reset time.

💡 Did You Know?

The wave speed equation v = f × λ links every slider together: raise the frequency while speed of sound stays fixed and the wavelength λ shown in the panel shrinks automatically — the same reason a police siren's pitch sets how tightly its wavefronts are packed.

⚙ Under the hood

Visualize sound as a pressure wave rippling outward from a vibrating source: adjust frequency, amplitude, speed of sound and damping in real time and watch the wavelength change live.

Three.jsAcousticsWave PhysicsInstancedMesh

3D · Three.js / WebGL renderer · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install