让我们回到波动方程形成之前,声波在流体介质中的传播。声波为纵波,在介质中的通过质点(Particle)往复运动传播。注意这里面说的质点,并不具有实际的物理意义,不是指空气中的分子。Kuttruff教授说:
When speaking of particles it is not the molecules of any gas or liquid we have in mind which perform rapid, irregular thermal motions even in absence of sound, instead, we think of particles imagined as small volumes, each of them containing so many molecules that the effects of thermal agitation can be expected to be averaged out .
Jacobsen教授说:
The concept of fluid particles refers to a macroscopic average, not to individual molecules; therefore the particle velocity can be much less than the velocity of the molecules associated with Brownian motion .