Potential and Kinetic Energy
If you want to understand sound energy, first you have to know about energy. Energy is all around us. Energy can be classified as potential or kinetic. Potential energy is stored energy. Kinetic energy is moving energy.
Potential and kinetic energies are two broad categories of energy. All of the types of energy fall into these two categories. For example, electrical energy is kinetic energy because it is the energy of moving electrons. Chemical energy is potential energy because it is the energy stored in atomic bonds.
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Mechanical Energy
Mechanical energy includes both kinetic and potential energy because it is the energy of motion and position. For example, a bike traveling up and down a hill sometimes has kinetic energy and sometimes has potential energy. The bike’s potential energy increases as it moves higher up and the hill and decreases as it moves down the hill. Its kinetic energy is affected by its velocity.
Sound Energy
Sound energy is a type of mechanical energy because it is the energy of molecules vibrating. Vibration is a type of movement, so sound energy is kinetic mechanical energy.
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When two objects collide, they push on the air molecules around them. The air molecules vibrate and push on the air molecules next to them. The vibration moves away from the two objects in a wave. Each molecule bumps into the next molecule causing it to move. A sound wave is similar to fans doing the wave at a baseball game.
When the vibrations enter our ears, they make the eardrum vibrate. The vibrations travel through the tiny bones of the middle ear to the inner ear. Thousands of tiny hair cells in the inner ear convert the vibrations into an electrical signal that is sent to the brain. The brain interprets the signals as sounds.
There is No Sound Energy in Space
Sound energy moves at different speeds through different mediums. It moves the fastest through solids, slower through liquids, and the slowest through gases. The change in speed is why things sound funny to us underwater. Because sound energy is the energy of molecules vibrating, sound cannot travel through a vacuum. There is no sound in space.
This is a low level of energy, so it isn’t efficient to convert sound energy into different types of energy. Microphones and speakers convert sound energy into electrical energy and back into sound energy to amplify sound, but electrical energy must be added to the system.
How We Hear
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It is amazing to think that everything we hear comes from microscopic molecules vibrating. Sound energy is all around us! Without it, we couldn’t hear music or talk with our friends. Life would be dull without it!
Are you teaching your middle school science students about energy? Keep your lesson planning simple with this reading passage all about sound energy. Comprehension questions are included to help students consolidate what they learned. The reading passage is also part of a larger unit on energy. Click on the picture to visit my Teachers Pay Teachers store to check out all of my energy resources!
Are You Teaching Science?
I am working on creating more science units so that every science teacher can get exactly what he or she needs for her students. You can also read about how I use brain science to teach other science topics on my blog. Click the pictures below to learn more.
Coming Soon!
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