What fundamental physical law dictates that sound intensity drops drastically with distance in open air?
Answer
The inverse square law.
The inverse square law is a fundamental principle in physics governing the propagation of energy, including sound, radiating freely from a point source in three-dimensional space. This law dictates that the intensity of the sound decreases proportionally to the square of the distance from the source. If a speaker is moved twice as far away from a listener, the sound intensity received will be only one-fourth as strong. This relationship explains why, regardless of how powerful the voice or how sophisticated the simple acoustic aid (like cupped hands), free sound radiation in open air cannot fundamentally overcome this rapid drop-off in volume over distance.
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