Question

sound needs a medium to travel . Explain

Answer 1

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The origin of sound is always some vibrating body. In some cases the vibrations of the source may be very small or very large that it may not be possible to detect them. This type of vibrations is produced by tuning fork, drum, bell, the string of a guitar etc. Human voice originates from the vibrations of the vocal chords and the sound from the musical instruments is due to the vibrations of the air columns. Sound travels in the form of longitudinal wave and it requires a material medium for its propagation.

Answer 2

Sound is defined as disturbances or ‘vibrations’ that travel through a medium. It wouldn’t make sense for them to travel if there is no medium for it to travel through.

Think about it. If you were in space, and you had a vibrating, say, cymbal in your hands, why would your friend’s eardrum - a few meters away and with no contact to the cymbal - also start vibrating? It makes no sense. The only reason it happens on Earth is because the cymbal vibrating causes the air that it is touching to vibrate, and that air causes the air that it is touching to vibrate, and so on, until you get to the air that is inside your friend’s ear canal, which, by vibrating, causes your friend’s eardrum to vibrate, at which point they can hear the sound.