Figure 13-23 shows how this comes about. Since waves carry energy, a source of sound waves is a source of energy. The rate at which the source emits energy in the form of waves is the \(\textit{power}\) of the source. None of the power is lost as the waves spread away from the source, but at greater distances the power is distributed over a greater area. Hence the wave intensity (power divided by area) and the perceived loudness of the sound both decrease with increasing distance. If the source has power \(P_0\) and emits equally in all directions as shown in Figure 13-23, at a distance r from the source the power is spread uniformly over a spherical surface of radius \(r\). The area of such a surface is \(4\pi{r^2}\), so the intensity equals