Year 3 - The science of sound

This week in science Year 3 have been looking at how sound travels. We discussed how sound travels in waves through the air and whether the sound would be clearer if it was heard in the air or through a solid.

For us to find out the answer we made our own ear gongs. Ear gongs you ask! What are ear gongs? We took a wire coat hanger and tied a piece of string about 30cm long to each side of the hanger. Next we wrapped each piece of string around a finger on our left and right hand. We then walked around our houses and knocked the hanger against various objects such as tables, chairs, cushions etc.

Now for the fun bit. We put our fingers in our ears and then did the same thing. All of a sudden the sound was much louder. It was almost as if the ear gongs had amplified the sound. We then had a discussion about why the sound was much louder now and came to the conclusion that sound travels better through a solid than through a gas. This is because the atoms in a solid are closer together so therefore can bump into each other much easier as opposed to the atoms in a gas where they are further apart.

The sound was much louder as it travelled through the wire hanger, through the string, through our fingers and directly into our ears.