Sound Wavelength Calculator

The sound wavelength calculator is a handy tool that helps you to estimate the wavelength of sound depending on its speed and frequency. You can use the predefined speeds of sound to compute the wavelength for various media, e.g., air, glass, and steel. In the following text, we also explain what is and how to calculate the wavelength of sound and show the sound wavelength formula.

If you're interested in sound from a scientific point of view, the speed of sound calculator might be the right place, to begin with. On the other hand, we also have the music interval calculator, which estimates, e.g., the distance between two notes. It is certainly worth checking if you're playing any instrument!

Sound is a type of energy that travels through the air or any other medium as a vibration of pressure waves. One wavelength is the distance between two compressions or two rarefactions in a sound wave. The wavelength of sound is usually measured in meters.

The wavelength of sound is inversely proportional to the frequency of sound. This means that the higher the frequency, the shorter the wavelength. You can check it with the sound wavelength calculator.

The sound wavelength formula is straightforward:

where

• $λ$ is the wavelength, usually in meters,

• $v$ is the speed of sound, in meters per second, and

• $f$ is the frequency of sound, in hertz.

You can also easily find out how to calculate the speed of sound with frequency and wavelength from the above equation just by rearranging it. Note that the speed of sound is not a constant but depends on the medium it's traveling through. The most common values used for the speed of sound are:

• 331 m/s in dry air at 0°C;

• 343 m/s in water; and

• 1,484 m/s in iron.

If you want to calculate sound wavelength:

1. Select the medium in which the sound is traveling.
2. Enter the frequency of the sound.
3. Our tool will use the sound wavelength formula to display this physical quantity.
4. If needed, change the unit of any variable you want.

The sound that humans can hear has a frequency of 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz. The sound wavelength of such frequencies in the air is 17 m - 0.017 m.

Infrasound

Infrasound are sound waves with frequencies below 20 Hz. These wavelengths are longer than we can hear and are usually used for communication with animals.

Ultrasound

Ultrasound are sound waves with frequencies above 20,000 Hz. They are usually used in medicine, e.g., ultrasound imaging. The sound wavelength of ultrasound is 0.0002 m - 0.02 m. One of the examples of using wavelengths in medicine and biology is in the DNA concentration equation, although it uses the wavelength of light, not sound.