Explain what is a medium for sound waves?
Answers
Sound needs a material medium for their propagation like solid, liquid or gas to travel because the molecules of solid, liquid and gases carry sound waves from one point to another. Sound cannot progress through the vacuum because the vacuum has no molecules which can vibrate and carry the sound waves.
Experiment:
Now think how the sound produced by drums is heard by us? How is this transferred to our ears? Let us understand this with the help of an experiment.
Take a bell jar. Bell jar is a laboratory equipment used for creating a vacuum. Its shape is similar to that of a bell.
Place an electric bell in the bell jar.
Start pumping out the air of the sealed bell jar. As we start pumping out the air, the sound of an electric bell coming out of bell jar starts fading.
As soon as the vacuum is achieved in the bell jar, no more sound will be audible from the bell jar. However, in the bell jar, hammer continues to hit the gong.
This means that still the sound is being produced but now we cannot hear it. This is because sound waves always need a medium to propagate. In the bell jar, it was, hence sound waves cannot travel.
Answer:
==>> The medium of sound is any basic matter that is densely packed enough for its atoms or molecules to easily and consistently “hit” (significantly influence electromagnetically) one another in large enough numbers to carry a coherent wave of pressure.
This would be solid, liquid, gas, plasma, and I’m not sure but I would guess even antimatter, etc. too, why not? If, however, the density drops too low, then a lot of the particles will get knocked around, but have nothing near them to pass the knock along to, and the wave will fall apart / the sound integrity will drop over a very short distance.