this question has been killing me.
2007-11-18 14:22:58 · 8 answers · asked by Jonathan Markezzi 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
Sound requires air as a medium, light doesn't.
2007-11-18 14:25:42 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋
It's often said that in space, you can't hear yourself scream. True enough, more or less, but rather misleading.
Silence is in the ear of the beholder, and ears come in a variety of configurations.
Sound can travel through space, because space is not the total vacuum it's often made out to be. Atoms of gas give the universe a ubiquitous atmosphere of sorts, albeit a very thin one.
Sound, unlike light, travels by compressing a medium. On Earth, the atmosphere works well as a sound-carrying medium, as does water. The planet itself is very adept at transmitting an earthquake's seismic waves, a form of sound.
Space, though not as efficient, can also serve as a medium.
If a brave and clever astronaut could safely remove her helmet and shout into the cosmos, her voice would carry.
"We wouldn't be able to hear the sound because our ears aren't sensitive enough," explains Lynn Carter, a graduate student in astronomy at Cornell University. Not enough atoms -- if any -- would strike our eardrums. "Maybe if we had an amazingly large and sensitive microphone we could detect these sounds, but to our human ear it would be silent."
An amazingly sensitive microphone, in a sense, was used to discover the constant B-flat coming from the black hole could be detected from 250 million light-years away. NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory observed gas, compressed by the sound, in concentric rings much like ripples on a pond.
2007-11-18 14:48:22 · answer #2 · answered by John O 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋
sound is the compression and decompression of gas molecules in the air. light on the other hand is a particle, called a photon. a photon can travel through space because particles do not need a medium to travel though. sound isnt a particle, its the compression and decompression of particles. so without the particles there is no sound.
2007-11-18 15:07:37 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Sound doesn't travel in a vacuum but it does travel in space.
2007-11-18 14:27:04 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
sound transmits through the vibration of matter... like air molecules, or water. light, on the other hand, is matter (of sorts) and propels from its source to the receiver... things like air and water distort this transmission.
there is no matter in the vacuum of space, so sound cannot propagate, but light can.
2007-11-18 14:27:21 · answer #5 · answered by justr 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
sound requires air to travel. That is why sound does not travel through a vacuum.
light, however, does not require air to travel.
2007-11-18 14:28:04 · answer #6 · answered by martinashasha 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Sound is vibration in a medium, like air or water or wood. If there is no medium, nothing vibrates, so no sound. Simple.
2007-11-18 17:03:10 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Sound requires particles of matter for conduction.
Light moves by waves of radiation.
2007-11-18 14:26:56 · answer #8 · answered by Robert S 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋