Miley Cyrus has recently been reborn as a cello player. Still, no one tell Robin Thicke about this video because no orchestra is looking for that kind of a member. Don't worry, there is a connection to chemistry!
See now if I tried to do this, it would sound like a group of cats fighting.
Now is the moment we've all been waiting for! I will satisfy your dire need for chemistry! Like a man who just came out of the desert and desperately needs water. Anyway, when I was watching this video, I was wondering how sound could be affected under certain conditions. As a sax player, I wondered if temperature could affect how sound traveled, and what do you know! It does! Now don't you see how Miley Cyrus was a much more interesting introduction than just this!
We all know from chemistry class air or gases are composed of constantly moving molecules. When it's hot, gas molecules move faster because of the added thermal energy compared to when it's cold. Also, consists of a vibration which repeatedly collides with molecules until it collides with our ear drums which translate these vibrations into the sounds we hear.
So do you think sound travels faster in hot or cold temperatures?
Focus on two facts:
1) Sound is a repetition of collisions between molecules by a vibration.
2) Temperature directly affects the speed of gas molecules.
Therefore if gas molecules move faster, this means vibrations collide with them faster and thus be transferred faster. In cold weather, the gas molecules move slower giving a slower speed of collision and less opportunities for collisions. So gas molecules are basically like a mosh pit of kids. More energy translates to more bumping between kids or molecules and conversely as well. So sound does travel faster in warm temperatures! Read more of the relation between temperature and the speed of sound here: http://www.ndt-ed.org/EducationResources/HighSchool/Sound/tempandspeed.htm
Still regardless of the temperature, sound still travels at least 300 meters per second. Take sound to Antarctica, and I'll beat it in a race, no problem!... If I get a minute head start... or a couple minutes....
No comments:
Post a Comment