How Is Sound a Form of Energy? Vibrations for Kids

What You'll Learn

• Sound is a form of ENERGY: it can make other things move without touching them
• Sound travels as vibrations passing from particle to particle — through air, wood,
• Bigger vibrations make LOUDER sounds; faster vibrations make HIGHER-pitched sounds.
• Your eardrum is a tiny skin that incoming vibrations push on — sound literally

Words to Know

Vibration

A super-fast back-and-forth wiggle.

A plucked rubber band is a blur of vibration.

Sound energy

The energy a vibration carries from one thing to another.

Sound energy from the drum makes the sprinkles jump.

Eardrum

The tiny drum-like skin inside your ear that sound pushes on.

Your eardrum wiggles when a loud truck rumbles by.

Pitch

How high or low a sound is.

A tight little band makes a high pitch; a loose one sounds low.

Medium

The stuff a sound vibration travels through — air, water, or solids.

The string is the medium in a cup-and-string telephone.

Check What You Learned

Fun Facts

• Every sound is produced by a vibrating object — a rapid back-and-forth motion of matter; when the vibration stops, the sound stops

  Source: NGSS / physical science standards, 1-PS4-1 "sound can make matter vibrate, and vibrating matter can make sound"

• Sound travels as a vibration passed from particle to particle through a medium — air, water, or solids — and cannot travel through empty space (a vacuum), which is why space is silent

  Source: NASA Science, "How Does Sound Travel?" / space acoustics

• Sound in air at room temperature travels about 767 miles per hour (343 m/s) — fast, but nearly a million times slower than light, which is why you see lightning before you hear its thunder

  Source: NOAA/NWS lightning-safety materials; standard physics

• Louder sounds are made by bigger (stronger) vibrations, and higher-pitched sounds by faster vibrations — sprinkling powder or rice on a drum makes the drum skin's vibration visible when the grains jump

  Source: NGSS 1-PS4-1 classroom demos / standard acoustics

• Sound is a form of energy because it can do work on matter — a vibrating tuning fork dipped in water makes splashes and ripples, and incoming sound pushes your eardrum so you can hear

  Source: NGSS 4-PS3-2, energy transferred by sound; standard acoustics

• Sound travels faster through solids than through air — pressing an ear to a table lets you hear a tap at the far end more clearly than through air

  Source: standard physical science curricula / speed of sound in media