sound waves

• sound waves are caused by vibrating particles that are passed through the surrounding medium as a series of compression and rarefactions
• sound travels faster in solids than liquid, and faster in liquids than gases
• when a sound wave travel through a solid, it does so by causing particles in the solid to vibrate
• sound cant travel in space as it is a vacuum , no particles to move or vibrate
• sound waves which reach your ear drum can cause it to vibrate. these vibrations are passed to bones called ossicles through the semi-circular canals to the cochlea
• the cochlea turns these vibrations into electrical signals which get sent to your brains and allow you to sense the sound
• different materials convert different frequencies of sound waves into vibrations
• sound waves are reflected by hard flat surfaces, echo's are reflected sound waves
• sound waves also refract as they enter different medium, denser materials they speed up because a wave travels into a different medium, its wavelength changes but its frequency remains the same so it speed must also change