Does Sound Travel at the Same Speed Through Different Materials? Sound travels 17 times faster when going through metal than it does when
going through air.
Sound is the result of molecules interacting or disturbing one another, so
sound does not travel at the same speed through different materials because
there are varying amounts of room between the molecules of different types
of materials. For example, sound travels about 17 times faster when going
through metal than it does through air — more than 10,000 mph (16,093
km/h) through metal, compared with about 761 mph (1,224 km/h) through air.
In water, sound travels about four times faster than through air, at about
3,000 mph (4,828 km/h). Sound travels more slowly through air because air
consists mainly of nitrogen and oxygen, whose molecules are not arranged as
rigidly as those in materials such as water or steel. The more rigidity in
a material, the faster sound travels because the molecules interact with
one another more.
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