Sound Facts

Sound Facts

Learn some interesting facts about sound that you might not have known. Understand how sound waves come from vibrations and how your ears give you the ability to hear them.

Find out what the speed of sound is, how sound relates to music, the meaning of acoustics and much more.

• Sound comes from vibrations. These vibrations create sound waves which move through mediums such as air and water before reaching our ears.
• Our ears vibrate in a similar way to the original source of the vibration, allowing us to hear many different sounds.
• Dogs can hear sound at a higher frequency than humans, allowing them to hear noises that we can’t.
• Sound is used by many animals to detect danger, warning them of possible attacks before they happen.
• Sound can’t travel through a vacuum (an area empty of matter).
• The speed of sound is around 767 miles per hour (1,230 kilometres per hour).
• The loud noise you create by cracking a whip occurs because the tip is moving so fast it breaks the speed of sound!
• When traveling through water, sound moves around four times faster than when it travels through air.
• The scientific study of sound waves is known as acoustics.
• Although music can be hard to define, it is often described as a pleasing or meaningful arrangement of sounds.
• The sound of thunder is produced by rapidly heated air surrounding lightning which expands faster than the speed of sound.