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How does sound travel?Sound, or acoustic energy, must travel through something, which is called the medium. Typically, we think of sound traveling through air, but it can also travel through water, wood, metal, or any other material. Sound travels through the medium, but the medium itself does not travel. Consider a slinky with me holding one end and you the other. If I move one end back and forth forcefully, you will feel the movement on your end. What happens is that the metal particles in the slinky that are being moved by my hand pass energy to the particles next to them, which, in turn, pass the energy to the particles next to them and so on until the energy reaches the slinky particles in your hand. Sound in air works the same way except air particles are passing energy to each other. If you understand this concept, then you can answer this question: Does sound travel through the vacuum of space? This month's Whizard is Doug Fox, a senior research engineer in the Structural Dynamics and Acoustics section of the Mechanical and Materials Engineering Division (18). The Lighter Side
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