Why does a room echo when it's empty, but when you put stuff in it, it doesn't have the echo anymore!?!?! This is driving me batty!!! It makes no sense (to me)!!!
2006-08-14 09:03:47 · 10 answers · asked by Scoot 4 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Other - Science
In particular, soft things absorb sound. A bed, or sofa, or even a rug will soften up the sound in a room. This is actually the main reason that office partitions are lined with fabric.
When there's just walls and a hard floor, there's nothing to stop the sound from bouncing around, so you hear it come back to you.
2006-08-14 09:10:39 · answer #1 · answered by abfabmom1 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Sound can be likened unto a flashlight. Shine a flashlight on a mirror, and the light will bounce back. Shine it downwards into a mirror-coated tube, you get fiber optics ^_~. Shine it on a matte-painted wall, and it will disperse fairly evenly, yet stay in the general area of the light. Shine it on a thick carpet, and the light will only be seen where it's directly shining.
Same concept with sound. Sound travels in waves. When the waves hit a dense, non-porous object, or an enclosed object, it will bounce right back, creating high-quality echoes (hence why concert halls have thickly waxed floors, and well-sealed roofs, and voices can carry long distances in concrete tunnels). If it hits a moderately porous substance, it will be partially absorbed into the material (like screaming into a pillow muffles the sound), and the echo will be muted. If it hits a very porous material, or if there is too many things in the room to cause the sound to not bounce back and forth, the echo will be non-existant.
2006-08-14 16:23:31 · answer #2 · answered by seraphim_pwns_u 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
When the room is empty the sound waves bounce off the wall making an echo. When furniture occupies the room the furniture absorbs the sound waves not allowing them to return to your ears and thus there is no echo. Hope this calms your battiness! lol.
2006-08-14 16:22:06 · answer #3 · answered by BeC 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Sound reflects off of hard walls. Especially if the room is a simple rectangle, you will get standing waves at certain frequencies, which strongly emphasizes the echo effect.
Adding furniture creates multiple reflections, blurring the effect of an empty room, as well as absorbing much of the sound that falls on it Home audio enthusiasts put a lot of effort into tuning their listening rooms.
2006-08-14 16:18:03 · answer #4 · answered by injanier 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Take a long shallow pan, put water in it so it covers the bottom about 1/2 inch deep. Set it on the counter and lift one end a bit and set it back down. The wave will go back and forth once or twice. Now put something in the pan that can act as furniture such as cups; something small and heavy. Lift the end again as before and see what happens. The objects break up the wave so that it can't bounce. Sound is a wave. You get the echo when the wave bounces back to you.
2006-08-14 16:17:44 · answer #5 · answered by etngapech 4 · 3⤊ 0⤋
Its just science, sound echos back without any interference in an empty room and is more profound than if there is any furniture around
2006-08-14 16:10:51 · answer #6 · answered by R R 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
good question , no matter where you go any place that is empty always makes a sound . there one place that i know in a subway station that has a long tunnel then comes out a full circle and no matter how many people passes by youhear them walking ,when it empty it makes a clear noise, at one point my friends and i with my dad going home that day started to tap our feet preaty heavy and it sound like a boom ..It' the gravity around the room that makes the noice
2006-08-14 16:17:44 · answer #7 · answered by athleticheart 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Simple answer !
Sound is REFLECTED by hard,shiny surfaces..!
When you put soft materials .. carpets,linen...etc...it gets absorbed and the.....reflection is lower. So lower reflection of sound.. by things in the room.
Echo is just reflection of sound...You hear the same thing over and over again.....!..since the soundwaves ....reach your ear...after different time lags of travel through the medium of travel ! .and the sound waves .....travel different distances before you hear them....this leads to generation of that Funny .. ECKOOOOO sound!...............
.(:~p)...oooOOOOO ECHO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Its annoying I know..! but we have cracked the code I guess!
NEO!...lol
2006-08-14 18:01:07 · answer #8 · answered by JessiMC 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think the furniture absorbs the sound.
2006-08-14 16:05:25 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
sound travels in waves, the furniture creates interference.
2006-08-14 16:09:22 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋