Jun 18, 2010

Can You Hear Me Now

Remember the old adage, if a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it. . . Have you ever thought about space? Sound is vibrations of air particles, and it only can travel through a solid, liquid, or gas, so there is no sound in space. Sound travels fastest through solids, a bit less fast through liquids, and slowest through gases.

Light waves and radio waves, which are a part of the electromagnetic spectrum, can be interpreted by radio equipment and then be translated into sound, but not the sound itself.

Even though explosion of stars, collision of asteroids, etc. can cause sound, it does not travel to be detected as we hear sound here on Earth. Space, as an almost perfect vacuum, is not an efficient medium for sound to travel and be heard by us. Although, extremely sensitive instruments can pick up sound (almost perfect vacuum, being the key). Astronauts talk to each other when space walking, by using radio waves.

Sounds can travel by air in the spacecraft and through the metal. If something exploded outside the craft, you would not hear it until something hit your craft, then the sound would travel from the metal, through the air inside to your ears. Hollywood does not follow natural laws, so you only hear sounds from space in movies and TV. . . as well as a many other unnatural things emanating from CA.