“To Kill A Mockingbird” promotes the anti-Southern narrative. The overwhelming majority of white people in the book were racist while only one black woman was presented as racist, Atticus was attacked for defending Tom Robinson even though the court chose him to, and the white people of the town believed Bob Ewell’s case more when he was totally untrustworthy. 

Although in the town of Maycomb, Alabama, most of the white people were hateful towards black people – with the exception of the main character, Scout, and her family – there was only one black who was spiteful toward whites. She was a woman at the black church who didn’t want Jim and Scout worshiping with them. In contrast, almost every white person was either racist, while all blacks were kind, loving, and friendly towards all the whites.

Another example of this stereotype is the Tom Robinson trial. Tom Robinson was the main black character accused of raping a white girl named Mayela Ewell. Although the Ewells had no evidence that Tom committed the crime, he was still convicted. Tom’s lawyer, Atticus, who was Scout’s father, interrogated Mayela so forcefully that she eventually admitted that Tom had not actually raped her, but then claimed that he had just beaten her. It soon became clear that her father, Bob, was the one who had done the physical abuse as a punishment for Mayela trying to kiss Tom when she invited him into the house. By the end of the trial, it was obvious that Tom was innocent and everybody in the court seemed to know that, so by convicting him anyway the author, Harper Lee, hammered home the theme of inescapable Southern racism.

Moreover, Atticus was shunned for defending Tom, yet the court chose him to be his counsel. It seemed the people of the town weren’t mad at him accepting the case, but for legitimately defending him. They thought that Atticus should play along but not really give him the strong representation that this black man needed. If Atticus had done what the people wanted, then his reputation as a lawyer would be ruined for not actually working for his client.

Despite the fact that Atticus had gotten at the truth through Mayela’s testimony, still the white people wanted the conviction of Tom. It didn’t matter that Tom was a nice, honest, working man, and Bob was a drunk and spent all of his money on alcohol, leaving his children with little food to eat, the white people were so loathing of blacks that evidence and character didn’t matter, at least that’s what Lee wanted her readers to think. 

Tom also had a supremacist all-white jury during his trial, which was not as widespread an occurrence as we’re led to believe. At the end of the case, the Ewells had not presented one shred of evidence against Tom, while Atticus had given plenty, again, reinforcing the picture that Southern society was brimming with injustice against blacks.

Therefore, “To Kill a Mockingbird Yankee” is anti-Southern propaganda. Because most of the whites were racist, Atticus was shunned for defending Tom, and the people trusted the Ewells case more than Atticus’, this popular and enduring work is a truly biased book.

Sound is all around us, but few people realize what makes up a sound wave or what effect different mediums have on the waves. Sound is more interesting and complex than one would think. 

Transverse Waves are what most people imagine when they think of waves. These waves are the ones used when a string is plucked or there’s a ripple in water. However, sound waves are not Transverse, but Longitudinal Waves. The velocity of any wave can be calculated by multiplying the frequency by the wavelength. Wave velocity is the distance traveled by the wave per unit time, frequency is the speed of the sound’s vibration and determines the pitch (measured in Hz), and wavelength is the distance between two identical points on a wave. 

Waves have two different types of regions: Rarefactions are regions within the sound medium where molecules are more dispersed, and Compressions are regions where the molecules are clustered together. Mediums are anywhere that sound may pass through. A medium must be an area that is elastic, meaning things can be deformed and resort back to their original form. This is why sound cannot travel through outer space. Space isn’t an elastic medium, but instead a vacuum. The human ear can hear sound waves between 20-20,000 Hz. Sounds below 20 Hz are called Infrasonic and above 20,000 Hz are called Ultrasonic. Some animals can hear sounds above 20,000 and below 20 Hz. 

The speed of sound depends solely on the medium through which it passes. Every medium generates a different speed for sound. For example, the speed of sound is the highest in solids, followed by liquids, and finally the lowest in gasses. The speed of sound through air is 340 m/s or 760 mph. Some jets are capable of surpassing the speed of sound by almost 10 times. 

Sound waves tend to reflect or reverberate off smooth, hard surfaces, while they are usually absorbed by soft, irregular surfaces. The Law of Reflection states, “the angle of reflection is equal to the angle of incidence.” SONAR calculates how far away an object is by sending out a sound wave and then measuring the time it takes for the sound to return after being reflected. Similar to light, refraction of sound occurs when a wave continues through a medium and bends. 

Forced vibrations occur when an object is forced to vibrate at a certain frequency by an input force. Resonance is similar, but not the same. Resonance occurs when objects are forced to vibrate at their natural frequency. Sound waves are pressure waves, meaning they can exert a force on objects with the help of resonance. This is the reason why sound can shatter glass. Tuning forks will vibrate and resonate off each other if they’re at the same frequency. 

Interference has two types: Constructive and Destructive interference. Constructive interference is when two waves meet, combine, and increase each other’s amplitude. Destructive interference is when two waves meet, combine, and decrease each other’s amplitude. 

When a sound source travels it causes the frequency of the sound it creates to be higher in the direction the object is traveling and lower in the direction opposite to the traveling object. This is why ambulances sound much louder when they’re driving towards you than away from you. When an object travels faster than the speed of sound it produces a cone-shaped shock wave. When observers encounter this shock wave they hear a Sonic Boom or crack. Sonic Booms are not the sound of the sound barrier being broken, just the noise of sound waves overlapping and being compressed into a single conical shock wave. 

Sound is omnipresent, so learning about its intriguing anatomy helps us to understand our world. When it comes to the science of sounds, there is definitely more than meets the ear.