So our recent investigations had us thinking that maybe you don't even need air for sounds since it doesn't have to travel from the sound source all the way to our ears to hear it.
So the best way to get rid of air...to use a pump/vaccuum to get it out! Mrs. Brinza didn't have this equipment, so we turned to the web to help us figure this out:
So the best way to get rid of air...to use a pump/vaccuum to get it out! Mrs. Brinza didn't have this equipment, so we turned to the web to help us figure this out:
We figured out that air is TOTALLY necessary for sound to move, because without it, we couldn't hear the sound. This made us wonder if there were other things that could replace air, like water. So some generous students decided to stick their ears in a container of water and listen for sounds made with some rocks coming together:
And the big THUMBS UP means that YES! You can hear sounds through a liquid, like water. We even heard students passing by in the hallway through the solid door to our classroom. This all must mean that sounds need some sort of medium (gas, liquid, or solid) to move from a sound source to a sound receiver. We're really figuring stuff out!