Final answer:
The higher the amplitude of a sound wave, the louder the sound. Amplitude directly affects a wave's energetic oscillations and pressure variances, which our ears perceive as volume, typically measured in decibels. As sound waves travel, their amplitude decreases, causing sounds to become softer with distance.
Step-by-step explanation:
Sound travels in waves, and the attribute we refer to as the amplitude of a wave is integral to determining how we perceive the sound's loudness. Specifically, the higher the amplitude (the greater the dimension from peak to trough), the louder the sound will be. If we compare two sounds, the one with the larger amplitude will have more energetic oscillations, which in turn means that it will have greater pressure maxima and minima, leading to a louder perception by our ears. For instance, when measuring sound, the vocabulary often includes decibels (dB); the volume of everyday human speech is around 60 decibels, which is much louder than the softest sound a human can hear, set as the zero point on the decibel scale. Additionally, it's important to note that as sound waves travel and increase in distance from the source, the amplitude tends to decrease, which is why sounds get softer the further you move away from where they originate.