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Re: frequency dependence of sound speed



Bernard Cleyet wrote:

at low frequencies it's not adiabatic.

That's interesting.

But it sounds backwards. Sound stops being adiabatic
when thermal conduction sets in. Low frequencies are
associated with long wavelengths, and since thermal
conduction is diffusive I would expect _less_ conduction
and _more_ adiabatic behavior at low frequencies, for
plane waves and such.

Diffusion makes progress like the square root of time.

OTOH if we're talking about standing waves in a heavy
copper organ pipe, then OK, low-frequency waves will
exchange heat with the walls of the pipe. But this
will be horribly dependent on the details of the
situation; if somebody puts this into a tabulation
of "properties of the air" I'm not going to believe it.