• Question: Does sound travel faster in space ?

    Asked by Liv Becks to Ajay, Kate, Kuntal, Pip, Reka on 7 Nov 2016.
    • Photo: Reka Nagy

      Reka Nagy answered on 7 Nov 2016:

      Sound does not travel in space – see my previous answer here /radonn16-zone/2016/11/04/is-it-true-that-space-is-silent/

      Light, on the other hand, does travel faster in space – this is because space is a near-perfect vacuum so there are no atoms to slow down its progress. Light travels at different speeds in different materials. You can see a change in the speed of light by shining a laser beam through a glass of water – the light will change its path when it hits the glass, and again when it hits the water, because these materials are more dense than air, and different densities compared to each other, so light will travel through them more slowly than it travels through air.

Comments