LESSON 3

PROPAGATION OF SOUND IN
SOLIDS, LIQUIDS, AND GASES

Sound waves are mechanical waves that

require medium to travel through. Among the
three materials – solids, liquids, and gases,
where do sound waves travel the fastest?
Why do you think so?

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
At the end of the lesson, the students should be able to:
a. describe how sound propagates;
b. distinguish in which medium (solid, liquid, or gas) sound travels fastest; and
c. relate how elasticity and density of a material affect the speed of sound.

▪ Observing ▪ Relating variables

▪ Constructing a model ▪ Problem solving
▪ Analyzing data ▪ Evaluating
 ELICIT

PERFORM THIS ACTIVITY IN A GROUP

PASS THE MESSAGE WITH A TWIST

Communication is essential to our daily life. It involves a two-way process of both sending and
receiving messages through many forms. Effective communication focuses not only on the
message content, but also on how a message might be interpreted by — and might affect — the
receiver.

This classroom activity, “Pass the Message with a Twist” is a fun way to start the discussion on
sound propagation and it relates to real-life situations involving communication.

MECHANICS OF THE GAME: Pass the Message with a Twist

Form a group with five (5) members. Form a single line. The first member will read the statement
and pass it on to the next person in line. The goal of the game is for the message to be passed on
correctly to the last member. To add more twist in the game, improvised telephones will be used
to relay the message. This will be done two persons at a time only. Ask the last person to shout
or write the statement he/she received.

How to make the telephone cups?

Poke a small hole in the bottom of each

cup. Thread the string through each cup
and tie knots at each end to stop it
pulling through the cup (alternatively,
you can use a paper clip, washer, or
similar small object to hold the string in
place).
 Possible Messages for the Relay:
Here are some of the statements
that you can use to relay it
throughout the game. These are
statements related to the previous
topics discussed. But, you can think
of better and funnier statements to
enliven the activity.
1. Sound is produced by anything
that is vibrating and causing the
air molecules next to it to vibrate.
2. Percussion instruments produce
sound when they are made to
vibrate by a blow from a mallet or
drumstick.
3. The vocal cords are the primary
sound producers for singing and
spoken sounds.
4. Sound waves carry energy, as all
waves do.
5. The main categories used to
describe sounds subjectively are
pitch, loudness, and tone quality.
What did you learn or realize from the
activity? Comparing the usual game of
“Pass the Message” to this game with
telephone cups, which is easier to play?
Which method delivers messages with
less mistakes? Why do you say so? This
has something to do with how the sound
is being propagated through the medium.
In the usual “Pass the Message” game, the
medium where sound travels is in air,
while in the game which uses telephone
cups, the medium is the string that is a
solid. How do the speed of sound differs
with the nature of the medium? We will
find out in the next activity.
HOW DO THE
TELEPHONE CUPS WORK?
Speaking into the cup creates sound
waves, which are converted into
vibrations at the bottom of the cup. The
vibrations travel along the string and are
converted back into sound waves at the
other end. Sound travels through the air
but it travels even better through solids
such as the cup and string, allowing you to
hear sounds that might be too far away
when traveling through the air.

ENGAGE

PERFORM THIS ACTIVITY IN A GROUP

Sound is a pressure disturbance. To prove this, arrange a series of dominoes, which are
equidistant to each other. Attach a pin on the last domino. And then next to it, place a balloon
(see illustration below). What do you think will happen if you let the first domino to fall? How
can you relate this on how sound waves travel in a medium and being perceived by the ear?
The dominoes represent the particles of the medium, with the first domino as the source of
sound. Once the first domino is displaced, it carries energy and transfers it to the next domino,
then to the next domino, and so on until it reaches the balloon – which, represents the ear. Same
thing happens when waves reach our ears and we perceive it as sounds. Remember that in the
process, the particles do not move from its position, but the energy has been transferred from
the first particle until it reaches our ears.

Instead of using dominoes, you may improvise

and utilize cheaper materials that are readily
available within your area, such as blocks of
wood, Jenga blocks, are among others.

EXPLAIN

Everything is made of molecules—air, solids, and liquids. Sound starts with a vibration that travels
through molecules in waves. How is sound waves being propagated through the medium?
Particles in the medium are disturbed from their equilibrium positions as the wave passes,
returning to their equilibrium positions after the wave has passed. From the vibrating source,
rhythmic patterns of compressed and rarefied air emanate. The resulting vibrating air sets your
eardrum into vibration. Your eardrum passes the vibrations along through a series of tiny bones,
then to cochlea and eventually being processed in the brain and interpreted as sound.

How do this relate to the speed of sound in a particular medium? By definition, the speed of
sound is the distance travelled per unit time by a sound wave as it propagates through a medium.
In our common everyday speech, the speed of sound refers to the speed of sound waves in air.
However, the speed of sound varies from substance to substance. It travels most slowly in gases,
faster in liquids, but fastest on solids.

FACTORS AFFECTING THE SPEED OF SOUND

Many factors influence the speed of sound such as – how close the molecules are, how heavy the
molecules are, how hot the medium is, and in what state (solid, liquid, or gas) it is in. This means
that the speed of sound will vary with the properties of the material through which that sound
wave is traveling. What are these factors? Let us discuss two of them in this lesson.

Elasticity
In solids, the speed of sound depends on the elasticity and density of the medium through which
it is traveling. The greater the elasticity and the lower the density, the faster sound travels in a
medium. The mathematical relationship is given by:

𝒆𝒍𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒊𝒕𝒚
𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒆𝒅 𝒐𝒇 𝒔𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅 ∝
𝒅𝒆𝒏𝒔𝒊𝒕𝒚

How will you link this mathematical relationship to the results of the Sound Race activity? Why
does the sound wave travel fastest in solids compared to the other two? Can you describe the
composition of solid materials and relate that two the variables affecting the speed of sound?

In solids, the particles are closely packed to each other making its shape more
rigid compared to fluids. Since sound waves involve the transfer of kinetic energy
between adjacent molecules, the closer those molecules are to each other, the
faster the sound travels. Solids are elastic materials, as well. They are able to
maintain their shape even when you apply force on it. Materials with higher
elastic properties, like in most metals, return to their normal shape faster and
thus, they can vibrate at higher speeds making it easier for sound to travel
through them. That is the reason why, sound travels much faster through lead,
for example, than rubber, which has very low elastic properties, even though
they are both solids.

Density
The density of a medium is the second factor that affects the speed of
sound. Density describes the mass of a substance per volume. If a
material is denser because its molecules are larger, it will transmit
sound slower. Sound waves are made up of kinetic energy. It takes more
energy to make large molecules vibrate than it does to make smaller
molecules vibrate. Thus, sound will travel at a slower rate in the denser
object if they have the same elastic properties. For instance, sound
travels about 1.41 times faster in light hydrogen (protium) gas than in
heavy hydrogen (deuterium) gas, since deuterium has similar properties but twice the density.
 ELABORATE

In case you are curious just how quickly sound travels through different solid materials, here
are a few of the different materials and how fast sound moves through them:

A List of Speed of Sound through Different Materials

rubber 60 m/s diamond 12000 m/s brass 4700 m/s
lead 1210 m/s iron 5100 m/s Pyrex glass 5640 m/s
gold 3240 m/s steel 5790 m/s concrete 3100 m/s
glass 4540 m/s pine 3313 m/s aluminum 5100 m/s
copper 3600 m/s oak 3837 m/s granite 6500 m/s