so sound is the vibration of air, and air does have mass. The question is what will happen to sound if the the mass of air increases??
2007-07-28 09:16:21 · 3 answers · asked by 7 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
Air is generally characterized by its density, because different volumes of air have different masses, while retaining identical properties.
If air molecules started weighing more for some inexplicable reason, the speed of sound would scale as sqrt(1/M), where M is the molecular mass. So, if each air molecule weighed 9 times as much, the speed of sound would be 1/3 what it is now.
This is the reason the speed of sound in helium is so high (helium molecules are very light).
2007-07-28 09:24:21 · answer #1 · answered by lithiumdeuteride 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Air does have mass, its what causes our air pressure. If we increase the size of the atoms that made up the air nothing would happen, since it would take more energy to move the atoms. If we increase the density of the air(such as the moles/liter) the speed of sound would increase, such as in water.
2007-07-28 09:21:46 · answer #2 · answered by nate q 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Sound is a vibration through any medium. As the density of the medium increases, so does the sound, but the amount of energy needed increases as well.
2007-07-28 09:22:30 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋