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?

Question

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?

The sound waves are blocked by people in the stadium.
The sound waves are spread out over a large area.
The sound waves can only travel through certain materials.
The sound waves slow down as they move away from the bat.

Answer 1

The cause of this phenomenon is that the sound waves spread out over a large area. As the sound waves propagate from the bat hitting the ball, they disperse in all directions, creating an expanding spherical wavefront. As the waves travel farther from the source, they become more spread out, resulting in a decrease in sound intensity at greater distances. This phenomenon is known as the inverse square law, which states that the intensity of a sound wave decreases with the square of the distance from the source.