How Sound Waves Travel

Lab Brief #3

🎯 Your mission

Predict it first. Then prove yourself right (or wrong).

⚡ The twist

The opposite of what you expect is often what happens.

What you'll learn

Sound is a wave made by vibrations that travel through a material such as air, water, or metal. The vibrations bump particles into one another to carry energy to your ears, which is why sound cannot travel through empty space.

Key words

energy
The power to make things move, grow, or change.

Make a hypothesis first

Predict: what happens if you double the force?

Say your guess out loud — then find out if you were right.

Get ready

🧰 What you need

string

⚠️ Safety first

Small parts and balloon fragments are a choking hazard — keep them away from young children.

Step 1 of 4 · Read

Look at the vocabulary words and write a definition for each in your own words.

Step 2 of 4 · Do

Test Newton's Third Law: blow up a balloon, attach it to a straw on a string, and release. Measure how far it travels with different amounts of air.

Step 3 of 4 · Observe

Use your senses (except taste) to describe what you notice.

Step 4 of 4 · Record

Write a summary of your findings in 3-5 sentences.

Question 1 of 3

What type of energy does a stretched rubber band have?

How sure are you?😐 maybe

Question 2 of 3

What form of energy does food contain?

How sure are you?😐 maybe

Question 3 of 3

What type of energy does a moving object have?

How sure are you?😐 maybe

Mind = blown

🔥 A bolt of lightning is 5 times hotter than the surface of the sun.

Nice work!

You got 0 of 3 right.

Next: What Magnets Do and Do Not Attract All lessons

🎯

Next Smart Experiment

We'll pick an experiment that matches exactly how you're thinking right now.

✨ More to explore

🌍 Where you see this in real life: You use this every time you flip a light switch, ride a bike, or kick a ball.

🏆 Stretch challenge (try it this week): Time how long a small ball rolls down something, then change the slope and try again.

👨‍👩‍👧 For the dinner table: “Show me something at home that uses this kind of energy.”

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How Sound Waves Travel

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