Yahoo Answers is shutting down on May 4th, 2021 (Eastern Time) and beginning April 20th, 2021 (Eastern Time) the Yahoo Answers website will be in read-only mode. There will be no changes to other Yahoo properties or services, or your Yahoo account. You can find more information about the Yahoo Answers shutdown and how to download your data on this help page.

Jed
Lv 7

Are there any instances when gravity will affect the travel of sound waves?

Distance and objects do, but would gravity?

6 Answers

Relevance
  • 1 decade ago

    Let's suppose you have sound travelling a couple miles here on Earth -- say a lightning bolt two miles away creates a thunderclap. That travels at about 1100 feet per second (why we count seconds and divide by 5 to determine the distance of the lightning bolt).

    If you change the Earth's gravity, it will increase the atmospheric pressure and that in turn will increase the speed that sound waves travel through the air.

  • ?
    Lv 4
    4 years ago

    Gravity keeps our oceans and our environment on our planet, so without gravity, they could be dispersed uniformly with the aid of the universe, and probable never be dense sufficient to propagate sound. yet interior a physique of water or interior the ambience, the molecules are frequently in equilibrium. The tension of gravity is balanced by making use of tension from different molecules. If there is action, that's with the aid of different factors. One occasion is the sea breeze. in the process the day, land heats up quicker than the sea, so the air above the land is way less dense and rises, with the cooler air above the sea blowing in to take its place. the alternative happens at night, ensuing in an offshore breeze. while you're making a valid the place the full air mass is transforming into, the molecules wearing the sound are transforming into, so the sound could tend to pass upward. that's a reasonably small effect, because of the fact the fee of the sound is plenty larger than the fee of the air. If there's a stronger or diverse element affecting sound return and forth, the excellent thank you to respond to the question is (a million) to study it, and notice if somebody else has already carried out (2), and (2) to look at it. Ask your company why he/she thinks it travels downward. Devise experiments that would desire to instruct despite if or no longer it happens. propose theories to describe it. talk them consisting of your friends. try them. it quite is the medical technique at artwork.

  • 1 decade ago

    Sound has to travel through a medium, such as air.

    To the extent that gravity affects the medium, any waves traveling through that medium are also affected.

  • 1 decade ago

    Yes.

    Gravity is a damper on sound waves which is one of the reasons why sound gets weaker the furthrer it gets from its source.

    This is one of the reasons sound does not travel forever the way light seems to do in outer space.

    Source(s): 45+ years following a Jewish Carpenter & studying His Book! I am the real Pastor Art, not the clone. BS in Math, ISU
  • How do you think about the answers? You can sign in to vote the answer.
  • 1 decade ago

    if the gravity from black holes can bend light, the gravity from earth should distort sound waves by miniscule amounts

  • 1 decade ago

    Indirecly, by affecting the air density. Closer to the ground, the air is denser, which means the sound travels faster.

Still have questions? Get your answers by asking now.