The following materials are taken from:
http://nahrstedt.cs.uiuc.edu:5000/pub/htdocs/intro/audio1.html
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Audio

Basic Sound Concepts

Sound is a continuous wave that travels through air. The wave is made up of pressure differences. An example of generating sound waves is shown in the figure below :

Sound is detected by measuring the pressure level at a point :

Frequency represents the number of periods in a second. It is measured in hertz.

The human hearing frequency range is 20 Hz to 20 kHz. The voice range is about 500 Hz to 2 kHz.

The amplitude of a sound is the measure of displacement of the air pressure wave from its mean.