Thread: Why do low frequencies travel farther than high frequencies?

When you listen to speakers, or headphones for that matter, from far away, you usually only hear the bass, not the treble. In addition AM radio signals travel farther than FM signals. But why? Aren't high frequency waves more energetic than low frequency waves? So why do low frequency waves travel farther than higher frequency ones?

Shorter acoustic waves have lower dissipation, because viscous friction and thermal conductivity is less noticeable at longer scales. Tsunamis can easily circumnavigate around the globe, so do tidal waves.

Electromagnetic waves have zero dissipation. The reason why long AM waves can propagate beyond direct visibility is diffraction of such waves around earth surface.

Low frequencies have a longer wavelength than high frequencies.

1/f = wavelength so the bigger the fraction requires a small denominator or a small frequency.