Sound waves

[Jordie]

I didn't know where I should ask this so I just did it here.

 

My book that I am reading on Light & Sound Waves states the following.

 

"Consider what happens when waves of sound move through the billions upon billions of particles that make up the air. A disturbance -- the ringing of a bell, a revolver shot, a mewoing of a cat -- causes the particles of the air nearest the disturbance (call them A particles) to bump into there neighbors, which we shall call B particles bump into the adjacent C particles and so on. The series of collisions brings about variations in pressure of the air; the variations are transmitted through the air at the rate of roughly a mile in five seconds and reach the ear drum of the listener."

 

So does this mean if we could remove all the air on Earth there would be no sound?

[timo]

Yes. Also, sound waves travel faster in water, for example.

 

And to tackle what might be your next question: Lightwaves do not need a medium to travel in. The mathematical description of both light and sound as waves led to the assumption that there would also be a medium that light propagates in. This medium was called aether. It, however, turned out that the assumtion of such a medium leads to problems and so the current view of lightwaves does not imply this.