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Contents of Physics -2 : Sound, Electricity and Magnetism.: 347
bodies until 14th century A. D. when Gunaratna Sūri pointed it out in his commentary on Haribhadra Sūri's noted work - Sad-darsana-samuccaya 29. However, it is mentioned there in connection with proving the material nature of sound. It seems there that sound produces vibrations which is scientifically just the other way. Vaiseșikas also talk about vibrations but its relation to sound production is not clear. Sridhara Bhatta of 10th century30 and Sankara Miśra of 15th century state about the loudness and intensity of sound but they also do not mention about vibrations in sounding bodies. However, they tell about continuous flow or motions of sounds through air to the ear drum.
Acousticians have demonstrated that collisions produce vibrations, their strength being dependant on energy of collisions. Not all vibrations but a range between 2-3000 produce audible sound. Higher range tend to disrupt our auditory mechanism. Human ear is sensitive to audibility in the range varying between 20 to 20,000 cycles per second. This range has sufficient energy not only to cause sound sensation in ear but to deafen it too32.
The acousticians have analysed the sound producing vibrations and characterised them. This has given them the capacity to control over the sound one likes. (c) Propagation of Sounds
The acousticians accept propagation of sounds. However, the Prākrta literature mentions only air ( and space too for Vaiseșikas ) as a medium which is a mixture of gases. The physicists state that not only gases but liquids and solids also serve as the medium for propagation. They tell us that these two are better mediums as sound travels faster in these two by 4 to 10 times ( 330-3000 meters/sec. ) in comparison to gases. The sound recoils from smooth surfaces and absorbed in porous surfaces33.
The mechanism of propagation of sound is found to
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