Question

Explain the variation of speed of sound waves in solid ,liquid and gas.

Answer 1

Hint: Sound is a longitudinal wave. It needs a medium to propagate. As the number of particles increases, the speed of the transfer of vibration also increases.

Complete answer:
Waves are the distributions created in a medium. When a medium is disturbed, it will start to oscillate or to vibrate. They will transfer the energy from the source point of the disturbance to the other parts of the system. They will oscillate until the energy they gain will drain off.
Some waves travel through a medium with the speed which depends on the inertial and inelastic properties of the wave. Such waves are called mechanical waves. They can propagate through the three states of matter. That is they will travel through solid, liquid and gaseous states. A longitudinal wave is divided into two- longitudinal waves and transverse waves.
Longitudinal waves: Here, the wave particles oscillate in the direction parallel of the axis of propagation. They always show a to and froth motion. The sound wave is an example of this kind of wave. When a spring is stretched along the x axis and is released, we can find this type of motion.
As I mentioned, sound waves need a medium to propagate. What happens is when a disturbance is created in the system, the particle at the core region starts to oscillate in the to and forth motion. Due to this motion, the nearby particles will be disturbed and they will start to oscillate. This process will continue until the energy becomes zero.

So if the particles are closely packed then the oscillation will continue with a greater speed. In solids, the particles are tightly packed. So the vibration can easily transfer through the medium. Whereas in the case of liquids, they are not closely packed as solids nor not freely moving like air, their speed will be lesser compared to that of solids but greater than gases. Then in conclusion sound travels faster in solids than liquid or gases.

Note:
Due to the above stated reason, it is said that sound travels faster on a rainy day. Because on rainy days, water molecules will be present in the air. As the number of particles increases, speed of the sound too increases.