• Question: how does sound get transported from one place to another?

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      Asked by to Ben, Emily, Hattie, Jemma on 26 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
      • Photo: Ben Butler

        Ben Butler answered on 26 Jun 2014:


        Brilliant question cutewikib!

        Sound travels as a waves, just like those you see in the ocean but on a smaller scale. It’s best to think of sound as ‘vibrating’ air! These vibrations pass through the air just like an ocean waves travels across the ocean by the transfer of energy.

        Sound travels at 343 metres per second, which is actually pretty slow when you compare it to the speed of light which is 299,792,458 metres per second!!!

        When the sound waves hit your ear, the energy in them makes your ear drum vibrate, and that is what we hear!

      • Photo: Emily Hayward

        Emily Hayward answered on 26 Jun 2014:


        Hi Cutewikib,

        Sound travels by ‘sound waves’ these are a little bit like the waves in the sea, however we can’t see them. The waves cause air to move and the movement in air allows the sound to travel a little bit like it shown in this video (its pretty dated but shows the idea).

        Here’s another great video (much better than the other one, but quite long…..it’s worth watching though as you get to see fun things like how sound can cause a glass to shatter which is pretty cool)

        I hope this helps you understand it a little bit – its all very clever!

      • Photo: Jemma Rowlandson

        Jemma Rowlandson answered on 26 Jun 2014:


        Hello again!

        Sound gets transported though either liquids, solids or gases, like air. No air for example means no sound, this is why in space you would not be able to hear anything. So the big explosions you hear when the watching space battles in Star Wars are made up!

        Sound waves travel as vibrations. If you hit an object on a table the vibrations will cause particles in the air to start vibrating. These particles will cause the particles surrounding them to start vibrating, which will then cause other particles to vibrate and so on.

        This is a lot more effort than light waves which travel without using surrounding particles. Sound waves move much slower than light waves because of this. That’s why you will always see lightning before you hear thunder.

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