How Sound Waves Travel

Lab Brief #5

🎯 Your mission

Set it up. Test it. Be amazed.

⚡ The twist

Energy never disappears — it just hides somewhere else.

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

Before you start: which will move faster, and why?

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

Compare the before and after states.

Step 4 of 4 · Record

Write your conclusion: did the results match your hypothesis? What would you change next time?

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

🎢 You feel weightless on a roller coaster because you and the seat are falling at the same speed.

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: This is why airplanes can fly and why rockets reach space.

🏆 Stretch challenge (try it this week): This week, find one thing in your house that turns one kind of energy into another.

👨‍👩‍👧 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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