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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2007 Sep 28.
Published in final edited form as: Prog Biophys Mol Biol. 2006 Aug 8;93(1-3):212–255. doi: 10.1016/j.pbiomolbio.2006.07.010

Table 2.

Typical density, propagation speed and characteristic acoustic impedance values for isotropic media

ρ (kg/m3) c (m/s) Z (rayl)
Gas 1 100–1000 100–1000
Liquid 1000 1000-2000 1–2×106
Solid 1000–10,000 2000–10,000 (L) 10–100×106 (L)
1500–5000 (S) 4–50×106 (S)

L denotes a longitudinal wave and S denotes a shear wave.