Sound Energy

Lesson Plan - Get It!

Audio:

Listen up!

• What type of sound does the instrument in the image below make?
• Can you recreate the sound?

To begin understanding what sound energy is, you should first know the meaning of the terms matter and energy.

Matter is everything around you. Your computer, chair, pencil, and even your clothes are made up of matter. In short, matter is any mass (object) that takes up space.

The term energy is often defined as the ability to do work. In other words, energy is the ability to create change.

There are different forms of energy. Sound energy is one form of energy.

How is sound energy created?

Sound is energy created when matter vibrates.

Vibrations are very fast back-and-forth movements that you cannot see but can sometimes feel. When objects vibrate, they create sound waves.

For example, when you tap the surface of the drum in the picture above, the tapping creates vibrations, which then cause the air particles around it to move. These air particles continue to move and bump into other air particles, creating more vibrations, or sound waves.

As the sound waves travel through the air, they eventually reach your ear and cause your eardrum to vibrate. This is when you actually hear the sound of the drum.

How fast does sound travel?

Sound travels through solids, liquids, and gases. The speed of sound is determined by how fast sound waves, or vibrations, pass through matter.

For example, sound waves move more slowly through gases than they do through most liquids. In fact, sound moves four times faster through water than it does through air.

Sound travels the fastest through solids because the molecules in a solid are packed tightly together, causing them to vibrate against each other more.

• Can you guess the answer to the following trivia question:

If a fighter jet and a sound wave were in a race, which one would win?

Some aircraft, like fighter jets, are able to travel faster than the speed of sound! This is called breaking the sound barrier, or Mach 1.

Take a look at the image below of a fighter jet breaking the sound barrier.

• What do you observe in the image?
• What do you think the white cloudy shape is?

Next, review some of what you have just learned by watching What is Sound? from SciShow Kids:

• What were five facts you learned in the video?

Time for another quick trivia question:

• Do you know one place where there is absolutely no sound?

When you are done, continue to the Got It? section to summarize what you learned about sound energy.