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Chapter 6: Problem 9

If you were actually in a battle fought in space like the ones shown in science fiction movies, would you hear the explosions that occur? Why or why not?

Short Answer

Expert verified
Answer: No, one would not be able to hear explosions in a space battle. This is because sound waves require a medium, such as air, to travel through. Space is a vacuum with very few particles, making it an inefficient medium for sound to propagate.

Step by step solution

01

Understanding sound propagation

Sound is a form of mechanical wave that propagates through matter (solid, liquid, or gas) as vibrations of particles. When an object, like a speaker, vibrates, it causes particles in the surrounding medium, typically air, to compress and expand. These compressions and expansions then travel through the medium as waves, ultimately reaching our ears, where they are picked up by our eardrums and interpreted as sound.
02

Analyzing space conditions

Space, as we know it, is known as a vacuum, which means it's a region with very few particles compared to other places like the Earth's atmosphere. In outer space, the concentration of particles is extremely low, making it an inefficient medium for sound to travel through.
03

Sound in space

Since sound requires a medium to propagate and the vacuum of space lacks a sufficient medium, sound waves cannot travel efficiently through space. Therefore, an explosion in space would not result in recognizable sound waves that could be picked up by our ears.
04

Conclusion

In conclusion, if we were in a space battle like the ones shown in science fiction movies, we would not hear the explosions, because the vacuum of space lacks a suitable medium for sound to propagate. Sound waves need a material medium like air to travel, and the scarcity of particles in space impedes such transmission.

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Most popular questions from this chapter

A person attaches a paper clip to each coil of a Slinky - about 90 in all-in such a way that waves will still travel on it. What effect, if any, will the paper clips have on the speed of the waves on the Slinky?

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