How does sound travel work??

Question

My town has a summer bash every year at this time. When we lived 2 blocks away from the band stand we could barely hear the music at night. Now that we live on the other side of town we can hear the music word for word as if we were listening to a radio. How can that be??

Answer 1

It depends how the surroundings of the concert area look. sound travels out in waves, like a pebble in a pond (But remember the sound is in 3 dimensions, not like a lake surface's 2 dimensions). Now these waves travel from the speakers, so the intensity of the sound will be most intense in the direction the speakers are pointing. So if the speakers are pointing to your new house this will cause a louder sound that will travel further.

Also buildings, trees, pavilions and other big objects reflect the sound and are like the plants on the water that stop the ripples.

As the sound travels outwards it loses half of its volume as the distance it travels doubles, so if the intensity is 98% at 1ft it will be 49% at 2ft and 24.5% at 4ft , etc. So if the band bought new, more powerful speakers this will increase the audible distance of the sound as well.

Also if your new house is higher than the band stand the sound will be more intense. This is because the sound bounces of the ground and reinforces the sound waves higher up, that is why you can hear exactly what is happening at the foot of a hill when you are high up on the hill.