Room Acoustics
Sound bounces off walls. Each reflection absorbs some energy. The pattern of reflections arriving at a listener creates the room's acoustic signature — its impulse response. Click to place the sound source, and watch rays trace through the room.
RT60 ≈ 0.161 V / A • Sabine equation
Ray tracing acoustics
Geometric acoustics approximates sound as rays traveling in straight lines. At each wall, a ray reflects (angle of incidence = angle of reflection) and loses energy according to the wall's absorption coefficient α. After many bounces, the accumulated arrivals at a receiver point form the impulse response — the acoustic fingerprint of the room.
The RT60 reverberation time is the time for sound energy to drop by 60 dB. In a rectangular room, Sabine's equation gives RT60 ≈ 0.161V/A, where V is volume and A is total absorption area. Higher absorption means shorter reverb — the room sounds "drier."