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Sound Through Different Mediums

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Sound Through Different Mediums

Help a wildlife rescue team work out how sound travels. Read the science notes, then solve each challenge. A medium is the material that a sound travels through.

The science

Sound begins when something vibrates. The vibrations travel as sound waves through particles in a medium, such as a gas, liquid or solid. The particles pass the vibrations along; they do not travel all the way from the source to your ear. Sound can travel through air, water and solids, but not through a vacuum, where there are no particles. In general, sound travels faster through solids than through liquids, and faster through liquids than through gases. How loud or clear a sound seems also depends on distance, the material and the surroundings.

Sound investigation

A rescue team tests a buzzer using the same source and listening distance. Their results are below. These are observations of loudness, not measurements of sound speed.

Path tested

What the listener reports

Air

Sound is heard clearly

Through a wooden board

Sound is heard clearly and seems louder

Through water

Sound is heard, but seems muffled

1.Which result is evidence that sound can travel through a solid?

The sound travels through the wooden board.
The sound is heard through air.
The sound seems muffled through water.

2.Put these media in order from where sound usually travels slowest to fastest: air, water, wood.

3.The buzzer vibrates, but it is switched on inside a vacuum chamber. Why would a listener outside the chamber not hear it through the vacuum?

4.Choose the best explanation of how sound moves through air.

Air particles carry the sound source all the way to the listener.
Vibrating air particles pass the vibrations from one particle to the next.
Sound travels because air particles turn into light.

5.A volunteer hears a tap through a long wooden fence before hearing it through the air. Explain why this can happen.

6.For each example, name the medium that carries the sound to the listener: (a) a knock heard through a door, (b) a whistle heard across a field, (c) a click heard underwater by a diver.

7.Sound travels at about 343 metres per second in air and 1,482 metres per second in water. How many times faster is this in water? Show the calculation.

8.True or false: The particles in a sound wave travel all the way from the buzzer to the listener.

TrueFalse

9.The sound through water was described as muffled. Does that prove sound travels more slowly through water than through air? Explain briefly.

10.Draw a simple labelled model of a vibrating bell sending sound through air to an ear. Include arrows to show the direction the vibrations are passed, and label the source, medium and receiver.