Physics Sound Localization Demo


Navigation Links

Overview and Purpose
Physics Concepts
Powerpoint Presentation
Demo 1 (manual version)
Demo 2: Virtual 3D Sound
Design and Construction

Overview and Purpose

This website contains the documentation and associated educational materials for two web apps that simulate spatial sound. These apps were designed to illustrate physics concepts for the Physics Demonstration (Phys 420) course at the University of British Columbia. The intended audience is a highschool physics course. The purpose of these demonstrations is to aid understanding of how we use the physical properties of sound waves to localize sound sources. The reason this demo is possible is because sound waves behave in predictable ways according to the laws of physics while traveling towards your eardrums. We can mimic sound coming from any location relative to your head by taking a source sound and artificially adding sound localization cues to it. This has applications in virtual reality simulations and is just plain cool. This demo was made in 2020, so it is optimized for remote learning. Students will need a pair of headphones to participate. Click here for an overview of the physics concepts and/or download the powerpoint to present to your class.