Sound Waves for Kids

Well, before we start off with this article and begin with all the technical definitions and mumbo-jumbos of what sound waves are and how are they generated, etc., let's indulge ourselves in some basics first.

#1: Have you ever tried to figure out the concept, when you stand in a particular room and talk, how your voice gets carried to another person across that room?

#2: Remember, one of the most simplest experiment we all have done during our school times in our science books; sound waves traveling through a simple handmade string telephone? Wherein, we take two cups of cardboard and punch a hole at its bottom, attach a 12m-15m string to it and communicate with each other!

#3: Creative at music? Then bet you must have tried some fancy music on empty bottles in your pastime? Playing bottle music is one of the most common sound wave experiments that children can learn about. All you have to do is explore how the liquid and volume affects the sound waves in different bottles.

If you are a kid who is crazy about science and its experiments, then you probably have a gist of an idea about all the above-mentioned activities based on sound waves.

Sound Waves

The absolute technical definition is they move through vibrations created in the atmosphere. It is known to be a mechanical vibration traveling through a given matter as a waveform. Thus, it acclaims an alternative definition as a series of compressional and longitudinal waves moving through air or a given source of medium. Sound waves tend to bounce off a given surface or an object and vibrate against that particular object creating a sound. For instance, if two friends are talking in an enclosed room, their voices bounce off the objects present in that room, like wooden furniture, walls, bed, etc. and thus a sound is created around those objects enhancing a possibility in turn for 'em to listen to one another. If you consider them to travel in space, its existence is a total disapproval. The reason being is pretty obvious. Space is void. Vacuum. An empty space with no matter present at all. Hence, these waves have no particular medium to bounce off against to create a vibration. This is where the question of its existence in such an empty space totally dissolves.

This was a short overview on how sound travels through different mediums and materials, like, solids, liquids, gases, plasma, etc. And also how it doesn't travel though vacuum and empty space mediums, is a notable differentiation to consider. Moving further to see some interesting facts for kids, here I have a bunch of 'em listed down for all you great minds! Enjoy the read kids!!

Facts about Sound Waves for Kids

• Sound exist in a variety of forms.
• They strictly occur based on vibrations and the vibration of sound waves move in a backward and forward direction.
• Most of the sound vibrations are pretty obvious and its source of traveling is determined too.
• Other vibrations are known to be invisible vibrations and are determined by specific scientific experiments.
• Maximum amount of waves that we are able to listen to travel through air and other solid and liquid materials. It's due to these factors that sound waves are carried from one place to another.
• On a daily basis, the sound that reaches our ears are transmitted by our surrounding air. It's air that stretches and extends the capacity of the sound vibrations to reach our ears (recipient). When these sound vibrations reach our ears, our eardrums vibrate instantly which in turn sends a message to the brain and stimulates it to react accordingly.
• These waves traveling through solids and liquids is when they do travel through these mediums they slightly change and sound strange.
• They cannot travel through a medium of vacuum and empty space as there is no air nor any object to retaliate and react with.
• Dogs can hear ultrasonic and infrasonic sound waves at a much higher frequency when compared to humans.
• These waves help animals and insects to detect their danger. The waves act as a warning signal of their possible attacks. This Buzzle article might interest you even more how do whales communicate with each other.
• The speed of sound is 1,230 kilometers per hour (767 miles per hour).
• When sound travels through water, sound moves 4 times faster than what it transmits through air.
• The process of these waves in scientific terms is called acoustics.
• The loud noise that you hear is the speed of the sound in air, when you whip crack the tip of a stick at a high speed.
• Why is lightning faster than the sound of thunder? An often question to be asked, ain't it? Thunder is created by a rapid rise of temperature in the air that surrounds lightning. When such an air expands faster than speed of the sound, that slows down the speed of the sound when compared to lightning.
• If the sound vibrations are fast, the sound produced is high and if the vibrations are slow, the sound produced is low.
• They are also called pressure waves because they move the particles in the medium they pass through.
• These waves aren't just detected by human ears, but the whole body can feel the sound vibrations at a particular frequency.
• These waves bend when they hit at obstacles or corners of an object.
• Have you realized why do stringed music instruments that are played with fingers or a bar, when pressed down on the strings create sound and vibrate different frequencies? Well, when the strings are pressed down with fingers, this changes the length of the string having them to vibrate at specific frequencies and produce different sounds. A short stroke on the string makes a hard sound, whereas, it's vice-verse for a long stroke. The thickness of the string is the matter of consideration as well.

Like any other waveform, sound waves too have the characteristics of possessing amplitude, frequency, speed, velocity and likewise parameters. Once you understand the whole concept of the pattern in which these waves travel through a medium, I am certain this will trigger your interest into exploration of this subject furthermore.