Can sound waves travel through space? if so, do they travel as fast as they do on earth as in space?
103290
No. Sound is a waveform of energy that travels from particle to particle. When there's no particles the wave stops. Kind of like waves of the sea don't continue on land.\n\nBut - if you have a planet with atmosphere that's thick enough you'd get sound.
470235
The previous poster is right.  It's particles in the air "vibrating" (caused by pressure differences) that enables you to hear.  That is why in space, which is a vaccuum, you cannot hear anything.  There is nothing to transmit those pressure differences to your ear.
9323
Sound is actually just vibrations in atoms and molecules. Our ears are able to decipher these vibrations into sound, if the vibrations are strong and close enough. The laws of the earth are forever constant, so if a tree falls, whether someone is close enough or not, it will cause vibrations in the air and on ground nonetheless. Animals will hear it. There is no sound in space
962847
Sound relies upoon matter to convey its energy, and it takes time for the matter particles to "bump" into eachother to transport the sound energy, even in a solid. Remember sound is a compression or longitudinal wave.\n\nLight does not rely upon any medium to convey it, so no matter needs to move at all.
680357
sound travels the fastest in solids.slower in liquids and slowest in gases.\nso the answers to tour question is it travels faster in ice\nthe volume has nothing to do with the speed of sound.it is only the physical form,solid,liquid or gas
241031
Actually, to correct a previous answer, waves in water travel faster than waves in air because the propagation velocity is proportional to the medium density. \n\nSounds produced by a gas modulating larynx are bubbled out of ones mouth underwater. Acoustic energy is transferred from air to water as they emerge from the mouth. there is an impedance mismatch at this point. Also the shape of the bubble emergence guarantees that this is not a very linear transmission mechanism. The result is nonlinear attenuation and spectral dispersion which results in muffling of the signal.\n\nIf you were to use an underwater transducer (speaker) and send your acoustic signal (using a mic and amplifier above water), the intended receiver would hear it with good fidelity since there is no gas/water boundary to cross in this scenario.\n\nHope this helps
278787
in waves, therefore, in order to be transmitted it requires some medium to transmit the waves in. That's why sound can't travel through a vacuum such as outer space, for example
1217
The speed of sound in air depends on a number of factors - air temperature and pressure.  Generally the higher the altitude the lower the speed of sound.\n\nIn air, sound waves travel at around 330 metres/second (when the air temperature is 0 degrees centigrade). At 40 degrees centigrade (a very very hot day) the velocity increases to 354 metres/second in air.\n\nThe average figure for speed of sound at standard temperature and pressure is quoted as 343 metres per second or 767 miles per hour.
171646
It depends on the volume of the noise, and its attenuation in the medium it is traveling in. \n\nHowever, I might make a few comments that are somewhat relevant to this:\n\n1. The attentuation of sound depends on frequency. Thunder that is close by is a sharp high pitched noise, whereas distant thunder is a low rumbling noise. That is because the air absorbs high frequencies. So low frequencies travel further than high frequencies.\n\n2. Using diffraction, reflection and refraction, sound can be made to travel much further than it would normally. Consider the case of whispering galleries, where sound is focused by the shape of the walls, and is audible at much greater distances than it would be otherwise. A similar process is employed by parabolic mikes to focus distant sounds so they are more audible than they would be otherwise.\n\n3. Trapped waves at boundaries, or in acoustic channels, can travel very long distances. For example, the SOFAR channel in the ocean is used by whales to communicate with other whales thousands of miles away, on the other side of an ocean, or even on the other side of the earth.\n\n4. The 1883 Krakatoa volcanic explosions (estimated to be the 5th largest known to history) were heard 3000 miles away, and over about 10% of the earth's surface. More than half of the crew of a nearby British ship had their eardrums blown out by the noise. The low frequency components of the sound continued to travel around the world 7 times even though they were too low frequency for people to hear them. So this noise traveled about 140,000 miles, even though it was too low for humans to hear it.
306289
It still sends sound waves through the air, yes.  It does not, however, make noise.  Because noise is defined as something we hear, and obviously no one can hear it.  I know, I have a lot of time on my hands to come up with answers.
269469
Sound travels in waves like light or heat does, but unlike them, sound travels by making molecules vibrate. So, in order for sound to travel, there has to be something with molecules for it to travel through. On Earth, sound travels to your ears by vibrating air molecules. In deep space, the large empty areas between stars and planets, there are no molecules to vibrate. There is no sound there.
147635
Sound does not travel in space. \n\nSound is created when a vibrating object (your vocal cords, a guitar string, etc.) causes the air around it to vibrate. This vibration continues to expand outwards through the air (or water if you happen to be under water) until it reaches your ear drum, which in turn vibrates. Your brain interprets these vibrations as sound.\n\nSound does not travel in space because space is a vacuum. There is nothing to vibrate. So, when the vibrations (sound) reaches the upper levels of our atmosphere, it stops.\n\nSound does travel in the space shuttle because the space shuttle is pressurized and contains air that the astronauts breath. The air provides the medium to transfer the vibrations from the source object to the astronaut's ears.
705376
Primary and Secondary Waves \n\nAlthough it seems that most activities occur on the surface, the inside of the planet is a constant chaos of seismic, tectonic and volcanic havoc. To understand what occurs inside the Earth, scientists study the type of motions that are responsible for earthquakes, volcanoes and other natural disasters with something called diagnostic waves. These waves travel at speeds ranging from 3 to 15 kilometers (1.9 to 9.4 miles) per second and categorize the four different types of seismic movements.\n\nTwo of the four waves travel about the surface of the Earth while the other two, Primary (P) or compression waves and Secondary (S) or shear waves travel through the interior of the Earth. Primary waves manipulate the medium (rock or liquid) that they travel through by compressing and dilating it. These waves hold similar characteristics to sound waves. \n\nUnlike Primary waves, Secondary waves move twice as slow as P waves and are only able to travel through rock. However, both Primary and Secondary waves are bent or refracted at points when they encounter the threshold between two different media. For example, when a primary or secondary wave propagates through rock, it refracts when it hits water, or a point when differing physical properties meet. They also reduce speed when moving through higher temperatures. The behavior of these waves around areas can aid scientists to locate seismic discontinuities.\n\nFor more details ...\nhttp://library.thinkquest.org/28327/html/universe/solar_system/planets/earth/exploration/primary_secondary_waves.html
910771
"Both light and sound are waves." "and is there a physical analogous comparison of light waves to sound waves?"\n\nYes they are both waves. However, light is known as an electromagnetic wave which is a propagating disturbance of both the electric and magnetic field in space. Sound however is a pressure wave transmitted through a medium. Light waves are transverse meaning the direction of travel is perpendicular to the direction of oscillation. While sound waves are longitudinal meaning the direction of travel is parallel to the direction of oscillation. Another difference is that light waves DO NOT need a medium of travel (they can go through a vacuum) however sound waves exist only in a medium.\n\n"Sound is measured in Hz. how are light waves measured?"\nYou are correct, one measurement of sound is in Hz. However, waves have 4 unique properties. Velocity the rate that it propagates which is measured in m/s. Frequency, how many times the wave repeats itself in a period of time measured in Hz. Wavelength, the distance between complete cycles measured in meters. And finally, Amplitude or Intensity which is measured in decibels or W/m^2 which measures how high the crests become and how low the troughs become. The larger the amplitude the higher the peaks and lower the valleys. This is also measured in meters. Higher intensitys is proportional to the amount of energy the wave has. \n\nAs far as measuring a light wave, we usually measure the intensity and either the wavelength or frequency of the light wave.  The wavelength of light and sound is inversely proportional to the frequency because the velocity is fixed to the speed of sound 343 m/s or the speed of light 3.00 x 10^8 m/s.  \nThe higher the frequency of light, the more the light moves to the purple end of the spectrum (think about the rainbow). The human eye typically picks up light between 390 (purple) nm - 970 (red) nm\n\nvelocity = wavelength * frequency.
1085693
What we speak is sound and sound needs a medium to travel. So our speech cannot go into space.\n\nHowever what we speak creates some disturbance in the atmosphere in the form of pressure changes. These changes die down after some time and become undetectable. If we have some means of capturing these dying out changes, our speech can be heard after sometime but with present technology this is not possible
135250
When you are sitting in an airplane, the air around you is traveling with you in that "bubble" which is the airplane.  Therefore, sound acts the same as it would on the ground.  Sound is carried in air (and to some degree, other materials), but not in a vacuum.  So the paradoxes which crop up about traveling faster than light do not apply to traveling faster than sound.
311007
YES\n\nSince sound waves are mechanical waves they are influenced by the medium in which they travel. But electromagnetic waves such as light and radio waves remain unafftected.