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Transcript:

How does sound travel?

Sound is made when something vibrates and waves of energy, or vibrations, are sent into our ears. Sound vibrations travel in a wave pattern. This is why we call them sound waves.

When an object vibrates it creates sound waves. Each sound wave bumps into the air particles which are closest to them. This then causes the air particles next to them to vibrate. The vibration is passed from one air particle to the next, which carries the sound along. Eventually, the air particles close to your ear drum vibrate. When the sound waves bounce against your ear drum with enough energy, we call it hearing.

The eardrum passes the vibrations through the middle ear to the inner ear. The inner ear is also known as the cochlea. Here, there are thousands of tiny hair cells. They change the vibrations into electrical signals which are then sent to the brain via the hearing nerve. The brain tells you that you are hearing a sound and what it is.

The further away from the original source of a sound you are, the quieter or fainter the sound will be. This is because the waves lessen until they don’t have the strength to vibrate any other particles. The size of the vibration is called the amplitude. The stronger the vibrations, the louder the sound or the bigger the amplitude. Quieter sounds have a smaller amplitude.

The vibrations travel through the air to the ear, but did you know that sound doesn’t just travel through air? It can travel through solids, liquids and gases. As long as there are particles to bounce off of, then sound is able to travel. However, if there are no particles to bounce off of, the sound is unable to move. This is why there is no sound in a vacuum as there are no particles to vibrate the sound.