Do sound waves and light rays interact?

[Niki4444]

Homework Statement

see topic title

Homework Equations

I think that sound waves are vibrations of particles in a medium. The vibrations continue until the energy is gone. Sound seems to need a medium to travel through.

Light can travel in a vacuum. your eye sees it from a source or from an object (reflection, refraction)...

The Attempt at a Solution

see my thoughts above. My guess is that they don't interact, but I'm not sure why exactly I think this.

 

[mgb_phys]

They do interact in that light interacts with the medium it is traveling through and sound waves can change that medium.
So you could change the density of a gas with sound waves and the change in density would give a (small) chnage in refractive index.

There are acousto-optical modulators where sound waves in specialy chosen materials are used to change the direction of a light beam by changing the optical properties of the material.

 

[baba89]

I can provide a response to the question of whether sound waves and light rays interact. While it may seem like sound and light are two completely different forms of energy, they do have some interactions.

Firstly, sound and light can both travel through a medium. Sound waves need a medium, such as air or water, to travel through, while light can travel through a vacuum. However, both sound and light can be absorbed, reflected, or refracted by different materials or objects in their path.

Moreover, sound waves and light rays can also interact through the phenomenon of sound-induced light or sonoluminescence. This occurs when sound waves are passed through a liquid and create tiny bubbles that collapse, emitting light in the process. This interaction between sound and light is still not fully understood and is an area of ongoing research.

In addition, sound waves and light rays can also affect each other in terms of perception. For example, sound can influence the perception of light, such as in the McGurk effect where a person's perception of a spoken word can be altered by a different sound being played at the same time. Similarly, light can also affect the perception of sound, such as in the visual dominance effect where a person's perception of a sound can be altered by a visual stimulus.

In conclusion, while sound waves and light rays may seem like separate forms of energy, they do have interactions through their ability to travel through a medium, their effects on each other in terms of perception, and the phenomenon of sound-induced light. These interactions may not be as obvious as the interactions between two objects, but they do exist and continue to be studied by scientists.