Why can't sound travel through a vaccuum?

Answer 1

Any sound waves use a medium to travel along (on Earth the medium is Air, Water or any Solid.

A Vacuum, like Space, does not contain any particles; therefore sound waves have no medium through which to travel and thus Sound will NOT Travel (or be heard).

More information

Sound or Sound Waves, are mechanical energy, and require a mechanical medium to propagate (or travel). That means that the medium must behave or respond in some mechanical way to conduct sound. Air or any liquid or solid will respond mechanically to the compression and refraction of a Sound Wave.

In a vacuum, there is no Mechanical Medium and so Nothing to be compressed, so no sound will travel.
Because sound, unlike light, needs a medium, usually air. In a vacuum, there is no air.
Sounds cannot trasvel in a vacuum because they have no medium in which they can travel through.
Sound travel through matter, trough the interaction of the electrical force between particles.

Vacuum is per definition empty of matter, so there is nothing for a sound wave to propagate trough.
Sound relies on the movement of atoms to propagate.
Sound is simply the vibration of atoms in the air but a vacuum contains no atoms so there are no atoms to vibrate and sound cannot travel.

Answer 2

In order for a sound wave to travel, it must compress and expand the molecules in the medium it travels through (such as air or water). In a vacuum, there is no medium to be compressed and expanded, so the sound wave cannot travel.

Answer 3

Sound is caused by vibration. When you talk your vocal cords vibrate and you hear sound. When something vibrates it causes the air around it to compress. As this air expands it compresses the air around it and this continues and creates a sound wave. This happens very fast. Sound travels by the same method in any other medium like water but because water is more dense the particles move much more easily and sound travels much further. In a vacuum there is no medium for the sound to travel through.

Answer 4

Longitudinal waves are waves that have same direction of oscillations or vibrations along or parallel to their direction of travel, which means that the oscillations of the medium (particle) is in the same direction or opposite direction as the motion of the wave. Mechanical longitudinal waves have been also referred to as compressional waves or compression waves. Sound waves are longitudinal waves that require material medium for propagation. Since vacuum offers none, it cannot travel through it.

Answer 5

Because it requires a medium to propagate...

Simple & smart answer

Answer 6

Because sound 'travels' by vibrating nearby air, since there's no air in vacuum, no sound will travel through it.

Answer 7

because sound waves are vibrations, and in a vacuum, there is nothing for the sound to go through.

Answer 8

Sound can't travel through a vacuum because a vacuum does not contain air, and sound needs air to travel.

Answer 9

sound needs a materia medium (molecules) to travel through...which means it needs air....but vaccums don't have any air in them.....so,sound does not travel in a vaccum.

Answer 10

Sound is transmitted by atoms which bump into other atoms. In other words, it requires the presence of matter.