And if sound travels indefinitely, why dont we hear stars exploding?
2006-09-19 03:41:12 · 14 answers · asked by Jimbo 6 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
Sound is the variation in pressure in a medium. Since there is no air in space, there is nothing to carry the pressure wave. Therefore sounds stop where the atmosphere stops.
2006-09-19 03:44:47 · answer #1 · answered by Vincent G 7 · 4⤊ 1⤋
there is no air in space. Sound is made of pressure waves in air (when we speak), or pressure waves in water, or in a solid (if you hit a metal bar with another bar).
Sound will not travel where there is no medium to carry it. In space there is no air, so sound will not travel.
Light, however, will happily travel through a vacuum.
As a result, you can see thousands of stars at night with the naked eye, but you cannot hear the noise of the huge explosions taking place all the time at their surface.
2006-09-19 04:51:26 · answer #2 · answered by AntoineBachmann 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Unlike light, sound needs air (or another medium, like water) to conduct it. So sound as we know it won't travel at all. The 'crackling' sometimes associated with radio telescopes is the effect of light energy waves being translated into whatever medium is being used to collect them.
So it may have been a Big Bang, but it was quiet ...
2006-09-19 03:51:06 · answer #3 · answered by mrsgavanrossem 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Dont you remember the 5th grade science experiment: Connect a buzzer to a battery in a bell jar, remove the air and the sound fades. Sound can't travel in a vacuum.
2006-09-19 03:58:20 · answer #4 · answered by davidosterberg1 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Sound is a wave that is passed along a medium, gas, liquid or solid. There is almost nothing to pass the wave along in space so sound does not travel in space. You might say it is dead silent. Don't let the movies fool you!
2006-09-19 03:53:23 · answer #5 · answered by moronirocks2000 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The medium of sound to travel is waves, carried by air. Since space is full of vaccumm, and sound does not travel unless in the presence of air, and hence, soun is not heard in space.
2006-09-19 04:11:45 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Sound waves, unlike light waves, need to propagate through a medium (either solid--a table, liquid--water, or gas--air) in order to reach a certain destination or even exist. Space is silent only in the areas of the absence of all three of these states of matter.
This is because sound is thought to be the compression and recession of particles (atoms) in a medium. No medium means no formation of the wave itself, and thusly, no sound propagation.
2006-09-19 04:04:13 · answer #7 · answered by Angela 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
confident. Sound can return and forth by a vacuum whether it fairly is converted to radio waves yet SOUND WAVES which you hear for sure could not. so which you may want to transform radio waves lower back to sound waves to take heed to it. it incredibly is how NASA communicates with astronauts interior the international area Station. There additionally are gasses in area which could pass sound without delay yet interstellar gasoline clouds are much less dense than the Earth's environment. (they have fewer atoms in line with cubic foot.) So if a valid wave grew to become into vacationing by a super gasoline cloud in area and we've been available listening, purely some atoms in line with 2d could effect our eardrum, and we would not be waiting to take heed to the sound simply by fact our ears are not tender adequate. in line with possibility if we had an amazingly super and tender microphone we could hit upon those sounds, yet to our human ear it may be silent.
2016-12-15 10:28:46 · answer #8 · answered by edelmann 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Sound is an air wave which vibrates it‘s environment. If there is
no air/water or other substance to fill an environment, which is
the case of space, sound goes nowhere, it is dampened at source.
2006-09-19 03:49:46 · answer #9 · answered by Ricky 6 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Sound will not travel in a vacuum.
2006-09-19 03:43:48 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋