1. Sound Waves

2. Sound Waves
Sound waves are longitudinal waves created by vibrating objects which transfer energy by compressing the air next to them, starting a sort of chain reaction in which these compressions are passed from one region of air to the next until the reach some sort of detector, such our eardrums, which are able to vibrate also.

3. through air at about 343 m/s
Sounds Waves
Sound waves travel
through air at about 343 m/s

4. Sound Waves
Sound waves are also also capable of travelling through water and many other materials besides air.
In fact, the more densely packed the molecules in a particular material are, the more rapidly the vibrations can be transmitted and the more quickly the sound waves will travel through the material.

5. Sound Waves
For this reason, sound waves actually travel fastest through solids (the densest state of matter), second fastest through liquids (the next densest), and slowest through gases such as air.

6. Sound Waves
The only thing that sound cannot travel through is empty space (known in physics as a vacuum). This is because in empty space, there are no molecules to be compressed and carry the vibration onward.