Although we will not meet scientists in this page, like in the two motion sections, you will be entertained by various rock groups. Ha! Just kidding, I just wanted to grab your attention. For the most part I will be doing the talking in this section. Anyway lets get started!

What is sound? Remember how this section is called sound and waves, well, the answer is sound is a wave. A wave? Yes, a wave. For those of you who have not had the benefit of playing with a slinky or telephone cord, a wave is a transmission of energy by a series of vibrations.

If you've played with a slinky, you know that you can have a wave by either vibrating the spring up or down, or by pushing the spring back and forth. Well like the stars on my hat, the two waves are different. The waves you get when you push the slinky forward and backward are called longitudinal waves. The waves you get when you oscillate the slinky up and down are called transverse waves. I'm guessing your next question might be what type of wave is sound?

After seeing those pictures of sound waves looking like transverse waves you might be tempted to say they're transverse, but in actuality there longitudinal. When you say AHH! Or hello!, you vibrate the air around you back and forth. You compress and stretch the air with your voice. For all you future doctors, humans make sounds by vibrating the air in their throat. Your voices are like saxophones or tubas - the sound comes from blown air and you make different sounds by moving your tongue.

All righty now, that I have given you an overview of what sound is, lets get into more interesting and fascinating details. To learn more, please insert $10.00 in to your disk drive now - Ha! That's just my humor - Just kidding. To really really learn more, click below!

Sound is a wave, a longitudinal wave

Sound needs a medium to travel

Sound vibrates the air like a slinky

Properties of Sound