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Sound waves are a type of mechanical wave that travels through a medium like air, water, or solids. They are created when an object vibrates, causing the surrounding particles to vibrate as well. These vibrations move in a wave-like pattern away from the source. Sound waves are longitudinal waves, meaning the particles of the medium vibrate in the same direction the wave is moving. This is how we hear things, our ears detect those vibrations and interpret them as sound.

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Sound waves travel through the vibration of particles in a medium. When something vibrates, it pushes on the particles around it, compressing them. These compressed particles then push on neighboring particles, and the wave moves outward. The energy of the wave decreases as it spreads. Sound moves fastest in solids because the particles are packed closely together, allowing vibrations to transfer quickly. It travels slower in liquids and slower in gases like air. Sound cannot travel through a vacuum (like space) because there are no particles to transmit the vibration.

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Our ears are highly sensitive to sound vibrations. When sound waves reach our ears, they enter the ear canal and cause the eardrum to vibrate. These vibrations are passed to tiny bones in the middle ear (the hammer, anvil, and stirrup), which amplify them. Then the vibrations travel to the cochlea in the inner ear, a spiral-shaped organ filled with fluid and tiny hair cells. The movement of the fluid bends the hair cells, which send electrical signals through the auditory nerve to the brain. The brain processes these signals so we recognize them as voices, music, or other sounds.

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Frequency is the number of sound wave cycles per second, measured in hertz (Hz). The frequency of a sound wave determines its pitch. A high-frequency wave has a high pitch (like a whistle or a bird chirp), while a low-frequency wave has a low pitch (like a drum or a bass guitar). Humans can typically hear frequencies from 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz. Anything above or below that range is either ultrasound or infrasound, which we can't hear. Musicians use pitch to create melodies, and our ability to distinguish pitch helps us enjoy and understand music and speech.

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Amplitude refers to the height of a sound wave. The greater the amplitude, the more energy the wave carries and the louder the sound will be. Volume is the perception of how loud or soft a sound is, which directly relates to the wave's amplitude. If you gently pluck a guitar string, you get a soft sound (small amplitude). If you pluck it harder, the sound is louder (larger amplitude). Our ears are very sensitive to changes in amplitude, which is why a small increase in energy can feel like a big increase in volume.

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Wavelength is the distance between two corresponding points on a wave—usually from one compression to the next. The speed of sound depends on the medium it's moving through and the wave’s frequency and wavelength. For example, in dry air at room temperature, sound travels at about 343 meters per second (about 767 mph). In water, it travels around 1,480 m/s, and in steel, it's even faster—about 5,960 m/s. Wavelength and frequency are inversely related: higher frequency = shorter wavelength, and vice versa.

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Sound waves are created whenever an object vibrates. For example, when you strike a tuning fork, its metal arms vibrate back and forth, pushing on nearby air molecules. These molecules compress and expand in a chain reaction, forming a wave that spreads outward. Musical instruments, vocal cords, speakers, and even engines produce sound this way. The type of sound (its pitch and volume) depends on how fast the object vibrates and how much energy is transferred to the medium.

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Not all sound waves are audible to humans. Ultrasound refers to sound waves with frequencies above 20,000 Hz—too high for humans to hear. Ultrasound is used in many technologies, especially in medicine for imaging organs, muscles, and unborn babies. Infrasound, on the other hand, is below 20 Hz and is also inaudible to us. It’s produced by natural events like earthquakes, volcanoes, or even large animals like elephants. Some animals, like bats and dolphins, use ultrasound for echolocation to navigate and hunt.

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The medium a sound wave travels through affects its speed, clarity, and volume. In gases like air, sound moves relatively slowly because the particles are far apart. In liquids, sound travels faster because the particles are closer together. In solids, sound moves the fastest due to tightly packed particles. For example, you can hear a train coming by putting your ear on the track before you hear it in the air. This is because metal transmits sound faster than air.

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When sound waves hit a hard surface, they bounce back, this is called an echo. Echoes are used in sonar technology, which helps submarines detect objects underwater. Bats and dolphins also use this principle, called echolocation, to "see" their surroundings using sound. The time it takes for the echo to return helps calculate the distance of the object. Echoes also explain why your voice bounces around in empty rooms or canyons.

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Sound and light are both waves, but they behave very differently. Sound is a mechanical, longitudinal wave that needs a medium to travel. Light is an electromagnetic, transverse wave that can travel through the vacuum of space. Light travels much faster than sound—about 300,000,000 meters per second vs. sound’s 343 meters per second in air. That’s why you see lightning before hearing thunder. Light also behaves differently when it comes to reflection, refraction, and diffraction compared to sound.

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Many animals rely on sound waves in ways humans can’t. Bats, dolphins, and whales use echolocation to navigate and hunt, sending out high-frequency sound pulses and interpreting the returning echoes. Elephants communicate using infrasound, which can travel long distances through the ground. Some animals can hear frequencies far beyond the human range—dogs can hear up to about 45,000 Hz. Understanding how animals use sound helps scientists study communication and survival strategies in nature.

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Sound waves are widely used in medicine, especially in ultrasound imaging. High-frequency sound waves are sent into the body and bounce off tissues and organs. A computer interprets the returning echoes to create images. Ultrasound is commonly used to view developing babies, check internal organs, or guide procedures. It's non-invasive and safe because it doesn’t use radiation like X-rays do. Other applications include physical therapy (using sound to stimulate tissue healing) and breaking up kidney stones with focused sound waves.

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When two sound waves meet, they interfere with each other. If their crests and troughs align, the result is constructive interference, making the sound louder. If they are out of phase, they cancel each other out—this is destructive interference. Noise-canceling headphones use this principle. They have microphones that detect ambient sound and produce a sound wave that’s the opposite (out of phase) to cancel the noise. This technology makes it easier to focus or rest in noisy environments like airplanes.

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Sound waves are used in countless real-life technologies and industries. In entertainment, microphones, speakers, and recording equipment rely on sound wave manipulation. In engineering, sound is used for quality control and structural testing. In the military, sonar detects submarines. In weather, infrasound sensors detect volcanic eruptions and tornadoes. Sound also plays a role in communications, such as radio waves, which carry audio signals via electromagnetic waves. Our understanding of sound waves continues to grow, influencing science, technology, and art.