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Re: I don't understand

Sorry, no, I don't follow. I think your use of the word 'polarity' in this context is misleading. Polarity has nothing to do with it, except as a convenient metaphor to explain what is happening. Polarity is not a property of a sound wave. Sure, electrical current can have a polarity if it's DC but, since there is no such thing as DC sound, the same isn't true of a sound wave.

We agree that sound waves travel through air (or other fluid medium) by alternately compressing and rarefying the medium. (If it were only compression or only rarefaction, then it wouldn't be sound). This compression and rarefaction is propagated through the medium from the vibrating sound source to the listener. At any point in time, the listener's eardrum experiences an increase in pressure due to the sound and, a split second later, it experiences a decrease in pressure due to the same sound. How often this oscillation or change change occurs is deteremined by the frequency (pitch) of the sound.

Now, assunming that both the source of sound and the listener are stationary, it will be impossible for the listener to tell whether the sound heard is in phase with the sound that left the source or has somehow been shifted 180 degrees so that it is exactly out of phase, or anything in between. There is no information or frame of reference that would enable the listener to detect any difference.

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