A Physics Question
<div class="IPBDescription">on sound</div> OK, I have this small dilema regarding the speed of sound.
The speed of sound travels faster through a hot medium than through a cold one. This is seen as sound travels faster in hot air than in cold.
Also, the speed of sound travels faster in a medium with greater order. Faster in solids than in gas. This is because sound is traveled by the partciles vibrating eash other, and eventually vibrating the ear drum. Thus, the closer they are, the faster they go.
Now the dilema. How can sound travel faster through something hot, if the cooler the substance is, the more backed together are the particles? Like, it will travel faster through water than through steam, but if you heat water, the sound travels faster, and to produce steam you need hot things, so if you heat you start producing steam, which should go faster, but goes slower.
Can't explain very well, but I think you get the point.
Is something goofed up? Did I miss someting? Is one of the things I said false? Why is it like this?!
The speed of sound travels faster through a hot medium than through a cold one. This is seen as sound travels faster in hot air than in cold.
Also, the speed of sound travels faster in a medium with greater order. Faster in solids than in gas. This is because sound is traveled by the partciles vibrating eash other, and eventually vibrating the ear drum. Thus, the closer they are, the faster they go.
Now the dilema. How can sound travel faster through something hot, if the cooler the substance is, the more backed together are the particles? Like, it will travel faster through water than through steam, but if you heat water, the sound travels faster, and to produce steam you need hot things, so if you heat you start producing steam, which should go faster, but goes slower.
Can't explain very well, but I think you get the point.
Is something goofed up? Did I miss someting? Is one of the things I said false? Why is it like this?!
Comments
and sounds doesnt go threw non solids/liquids quickly because the atoms are not as close to bounce the sound/energy
im not sure if im right but i remember something like that
So, if the substance is cool, the atoms are closer together, but they can't vibrate as much (but if memory serves me correctly, sound still travels faster through hot water than it does through steam). Once the water becomes steam the atoms spread out an immense amount (relative to the hot water).
...I think I said that right.
[edit] And: Sound doesn't bother with electrons, it's a pressure wave, in that the atoms will group together and then disperse.
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O O O O
O O O
O O O O
O O O
O O O O
O = an atom (not really to any scale either)
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It can be demonstrated by getting a slinky, pulling an inch or two in your hand and then releasing the inch or two to the rest of the slinky so that it pulses down the slinky.
[edit] Mantrid's is probably quicker and easier to understand than mine.
Sound waves transfer energy, like any other wave. When they hit a particle, that particle gets the energy, and begins to vibrate, and will, in turn, pass that energy on to another particle.
In a hot material, the particles hit each other a lot more. Because there are more and faster collisions, the vibrating particles transfer their energy to another particle faster.
And sound has nothing to do with electrons.
<!--QuoteBegin--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> just as warm metals dont transfer energy as cold ones<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Which is true, except for Super-Conductors, where metals are cooled so much that they have negligable resistance.
And yes, at absolute zero (0 degrees Kelvin, ~-273 degrees centigrade) the particles have no kinetic energy at all, they not not vibrate. Of course, you can never get down to absolute zero, because you need something colder to take the heat.