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Is there sound in space? If a person could survive
in space without oxygen or a helmet, could we hear
one another? |
Question Date: 2018-03-14 | | Answer 1:
The short answer is no - unless you're in
a place like the space station where you have air
for sound to travel through.
For example, you could be in space, swimming
through a pool of water, and there would be sound
that could be heard in the water. For sound to
exist, sound waves need to be able to travel
through a "medium" (medium = stuff, like air,
water, or steel), so because space is a vacuum
(no air, no water) there is no way for sound waves
to move.
All the best!
| | Answer 2:
In parts of space with very low densities of
gases, sound would not travel because sound
waves need a liquid, solid, or gas to propagate
through. Sound reaches us by traveling
through air, water, and solid objects and finally
"pushing" on our ear drums, resulting in
vibrations that our cells and brains can process.
There is such a low density of solids,
liquids, or gases in space that sound waves
would have nothing to pass through to reach our
ears, so we would not be able to hear each other.
| | Answer 3:
No. Sound is a vibration, which means that
it needs something to vibrate in order to pass
through it. Space is empty. There is nothing
to vibrate in space. As a result, sound does
not travel through space. The only way you
can hear what astronauts are saying is by radio,
since radio is a type of light, and light can
go through space.
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