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One handy example is that in space, nobody can hear you scream but if you place your visor on another’s astronaut’s visor, they will. More on sounds here.įirst off, this means that sound can’t propagate through void, as there is nothing to carry it. The farther a wave travels, the less energy it has (so the less pressure it can exert on new particles), which is why eventually sound dies out and we can’t hear something halfway around the world. Its volume is directed by how high the wave goes (amplitude) and its pitch is formed by how often these waves hit the shore (frequency). So from a physical point of view, sound behaves quite like waves do on a beach. This pressure is generated by moving air. Areas with more dots (corresponding to peaks) show high air pressure, while whiter areas (corresponding to throughs) show areas of low pressure that interact to create sound. Two ways to represent the physics of sound.
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They will then collide with your eardrums, which ‘translates’ it into the sensation of sound. This will push the air in their immediate vicinity, which will make its molecules collide with air molecules farther away, and so on, until the motion reaches the air particles next to you. When someone speaks, their lungs collide with and push out air that their vocal cords modulate to create certain sounds. In very broad lines, any object in motion will come into contact with the particles in their environment. Sound is, fundamentally, a movement or vibration of particles, most commonly those in the atmosphere, where we do most of our talking and sound-making. What we perceive as sound is actually motion.
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But first, let’s start at with the basics: What is a sound wave Let’s take a look at why this limit exists, what says it should be this way, and just why things go boom when you blast through it. In Earth’s atmosphere, sound can travel at around 345 meters per second.
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