science · FOLLOW YOUR CURIOSITY
Can adding sound make things quieter?
Two disturbances can reinforce each other. With the right timing, they can also partly cancel. Follow what happens where they meet.
Explore the interactive discovery →
Why the observation point matters
Move to another place and the waves can arrive with different timing. A cancellation at one point therefore does not make an entire room silent. The diagram isolates one relationship: keep the waves’ sizes equal and change how their peaks line up.
Find the quiet point
Change the phase of the second wave.
Together
Matching peaks reinforce each other.
Partly shifted
The combined amplitude changes.
Opposite
Equal opposite disturbances cancel in this ideal model.
Equal frequency and amplitude; linear superposition. The optional sound is a synthetic tone, not a recording or a headphone test.
AN IDEA TO TAKE WITH YOU
More sources do not always mean a larger combined disturbance.
Follow a connection
What changes when a note rises an octave? →
This wave model keeps frequency fixed. Next, hear what changes when frequency is doubled.
Sources and transparency
OpenStax · Wave interference
Accessed: 2026-10-28
University of Colorado Boulder · Wave Interference simulation
Accessed: 2026-10-28
Illustrations explain an idea. Sources are available above.