What is sound? (2024)

What is sound? (1)

Understand what your child learns about sound and pitch in primary-school science and support their learning at home with hands-on activities and investigations.

What is sound?

Sound is created when something vibrates and sends waves of energy (vibration) into our ears.The vibrations travel through the air or another medium (solid, liquid or gas) to the ear.The stronger the vibrations, the louder the sound.Sounds are fainter the further you get from the sound source.

Sound changes depending on how fast or slow an object vibrates to make sound waves. Pitch is the quality of a sound (high or low) and depends on the speed of the vibrations. Different materials produce different pitches; if an object vibrates quickly we hear a high-pitched sound, and if an object vibrates slowly we hear a low-pitched sound. Sounds are usually a mixture of lots of different kinds of sound waves.

When do children learn about sound in primary school?

Children learn about and explore how sound is created and travels in a scientific context in Year 4.

Children may also learn about pitch and volume of sounds in music lessons in other year groups.

What is sound? (2)

What is sound? (3)

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How are children taught about sound in the classroom?

This topic is often introduced by asking the children to close their eyes and listen to the sounds they can hear in the local environment, or play a sound matching game to identify sounds where they listen to a range of sounds and identify what is making the sound.

    • Teachers may use a slinky, tuning forks, ripples on a pond and science video clips to introduce the concept of sound waves/vibrations traveling through air and other materials to the ear.
    • Teachers will discuss sound safety and why people working with loud noises wear ear defenders.
    • Children will explore pitch and loudness using a range of musical instruments from around the world, for example drums, recorders, guitars. Children will investigate how to increase the pitch by changing the tightness of a drum skin or the length of a string on a string instrument.
    • Children may carry out investigations to find sound-insulating materials, for example finding the best material to make ear muffs or defenders, and learn these workbecause the sound doesn’t travel through some materials as well as through others.
    • Children may carry out investigations to explore the distance sound will travel.

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    Learning about sound: activities to do at home

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    What is sound? (2024)

    FAQs

    What is sound in simple words? ›

    Sound is a type of energy made by vibrations. When an object vibrates, it causes movement in surrounding air molecules. These molecules bump into the molecules close to them, causing them to vibrate as well. This makes them bump into more nearby air molecules.

    What is sound defined as? ›

    : mechanical radiant energy that is transmitted by longitudinal pressure waves in a material medium (such as air) and is the objective cause of hearing.

    What is sound made of? ›

    Sounds are made when objects vibrate. The vibration makes the air around the object vibrate and the air vibrations enter your ear. You hear them as sounds.

    What is a sound in answer? ›

    Sound is defined as vibrations that travel through the air or another medium as an audible mechanical wave. It is produced from a vibrating body. The vibrating body causes the medium (water, air, etc.) around it to vibrate thus producing sound.

    How do we describe sound? ›

    Sounds are often described as loud or soft; high-pitched or low-pitched. These words are commonly used to describe, or characterize, how sounds are perceived. Scientists, on the other hand, describe sounds with characteristics that can be measured using instruments.

    What is the good definition of sound? ›

    sound adjective (GOOD, CORRECT)

    showing or based on good judgment: sound advice She gave me some very sound advice. She is a sound judge of character.

    What is the perfect definition of sound? ›

    In physics, the sound is defined as. A vibration that propagates as an audible wave of pressure, through a medium such as a gas, liquid or solid. In psychology, the sound is defined as. The reception of sound pressure waves and their perception by the brain.

    Is sound a silence? ›

    "We typically think of our sense of hearing as being concerned with sounds. But silence, whatever it is, is not a sound—it's the absence of sound," said lead author Rui Zhe Goh, a Johns Hopkins University graduate student in philosophy and psychology.

    How do humans hear? ›

    The cochlea is filled with a fluid that moves in response to the vibrations from the oval window. As the fluid moves, 25,000 nerve endings are set into motion. These nerve endings transform the vibrations into electrical impulses that then travel along the eighth cranial nerve (auditory nerve) to the brain.

    Why does sound happen? ›

    Sound is produced when an object vibrates, creating a pressure wave. This pressure wave causes particles in the surrounding medium (air, water, or solid) to have vibrational motion.

    Where does sound go? ›

    Sound travels through the air, but it also travels very well — in fact, even better — through materials like solids and liquids. That's because the atoms and molecules are more densely packed in solids and liquids.

    What is sound in one word answer? ›

    Sound is a vibration that propagates through a medium in the form of a mechanical wave. It is generated by a vibrating body.

    Why do they call it a sound? ›

    Sound stems from the Old Norse word sund meaning “swimming” or “strait”. Each of these words refers to a specific geographical formation, but over time they have often been used interchangeably, sometimes even mistakenly!

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