The 3 factors that affect the speed of sound wave are temperature,density, and stiffness of the medium that the wave travels through. How does temperature affect the speed of sound?

Waves travel through a medium: A medium is any substance or region through which a wave is transmitted. The speed of a wave is dependant on four factors: wavelength, frequency, medium, and temperature. Wave speed is calculated by multiplying the wavelength times the frequency (speed = l * f).

Speed and frequency are two different things. Speed refers to the distance covered in a set amount of time. In general the speed of light, for example, is 300,000,000 m/s, meaning that every second it travels about 300,000,000 meters! Frequency refers to the cycles per set amount (or unit) of time.

Factors Affecting The Speed of Sound

• The Density of Medium: Sound requires a medium to travel. The density of the medium is among the factors which affect the speed of sound.
• The Temperature of The Medium: Higher the temperature, the higher is the speed of sound in the medium.

The speed of light as it travels through air and space is much faster than that of sound; it travels at 300 million meters per second or 273,400 miles per hour.

Sound needs a material medium for their propagation like solid, liquid or gas to travel because the molecules of solid, liquid and gases carry sound waves from one point to another. Sound cannot progress through the vacuum because the vacuum has no molecules which can vibrate and carry the sound waves.

Sound waves can be described by the wavelength and frequency of the waves. Sound travels more quickly through solids than through liquids and gases because the molecules of a solid are closer together and, therefore, can transmit the vibrations (energy) faster.

Sound is a wave created by vibrations. These vibrations create areas of more and less densely packed particles. So sound needs a medium to travel, such as air, water—or even solids. Sound waves travel faster in denser substances because neighboring particles will more easily bump into one another.

A: Sound can’t be carried in the empty vacuum of space because sound waves need a medium to vibrate through such as air or water. However, because the particles are so spread out, the sounds waves they produce are at such a low frequency, humans are incapable of hearing them.

A sound wave can also be described as a longitudinal wave. In a longitudinal wave, a source vibrates back and forth, causing air molecules to move back and forth in the same (in other words, parallel) direction that the wave is transmitted. hendikeps2 and 7 more users found this answer helpful. Thanks 4.