• Question: how many sound waves have you discovered

    Asked by jets532gage25 to Rachel E on 28 Jan 2026.
    • Photo: Rachel Edwards

      Rachel Edwards answered on 28 Jan 2026:

      I haven’t discovered any new ones because people did lots of maths a long time ago and figured out how sound waves behaved. But I have worked out how to use lots of different ones, and built a sensor that might be detecting some types that are really hard to measure.

Comments

  • Photo: martinpike

    martinpike commented on :

    I keep on discovering transient mixtures of sound frequencies I really enjoy – Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells, Bach’s organ works, Black Sabbath….
    Odd to think that it is just areas of dense and less dense air that cause (tympanic) membranes in your ears to move, then via a few tiny bones and a liquid channel, excite specific receptors and nerves. Your brain makes sense of the electrical/nerve impulses, even where the sound is coming from.