During a baseball game, the sound of the bat hitting the ball can be heard in most parts of the stadium. That sound is weaker at greater distances. What is the cause of this phenomenon?
A.) The sound waves are spread out over a large area.
B.) The sound waves are blocked by people in the stadium.
C.) The sound waves can only travel through certain materials.
D.) The sound waves slow down as they move away from the bat.
D) The sound waves slow down as they move away from the bat.
The correct answer is A.) The sound waves are spread out over a large area. This phenomenon is known as sound attenuation or sound spreading. When a baseball bat hits the ball, it creates a disturbance in the air, which propagates as sound waves. These sound waves travel in all directions from the source, including towards the spectators in the stadium.
As the sound waves radiate outwards from the source, they spread out and become distributed over a larger area. This spreading causes the sound intensity, or volume, to decrease as the distance from the source increases. In other words, the strength of the sound waves diminishes the farther they travel.
This phenomenon can be attributed to the geometric spreading of sound waves. When sound waves travel in open spaces, they spread out radially, forming spherical wavefronts. As these wavefronts expand, the same amount of sound energy is distributed over a larger and larger surface area. Consequently, the sound waves become weaker at greater distances because the energy is dispersed across a larger space.
Therefore, in the context of a baseball game, the sound of the bat hitting the ball can be heard in most parts of the stadium but becomes weaker as the distance from the point of impact increases.