To Be, Or Not To Be aka Yes, Virginia; There Is (Not) Sound In Space

How did that go again? Space. The final frontier…

No. That’s not it. Let’s try…

Space. Is big. Really big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mindbogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist’s, but that’s just peanuts to space…

No, that’s not either. Ah. This.

I’m going to do a little magic trick for you. I’m going to convince you that there’s no sound in space… but at the same time, there’s sound in space. Are you ready? Okay. Deep breath. Here we go.

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There’s no sound in space. There I said it. Wrap it up, boys. We’re done. That’s my time. Good night, everybody. Try the veal.

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Hm. Okay. That’s not much of a magic trick, is it? I take it back. We’re not done yet. I think we need to define the term “sound” in the first place. I like this one:

sound [ sound ]: any audible vibrational disturbance

Dictionary.com (abbreviated)

So by science, the whole philosophical thing about, “If a tree falls in the woods, does it make a sound?” is answered easily by, “Yes.” Well, there you go. There’s sound in space. Pack it up, boys. We’re done here. Good night, everybody. Try the veal.

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Hm. Maybe this is going to be a little more complicated than I thought…

Okay. Let’s try this.

Sound is a wave of pressure. In other words, it’s a moving repeating pattern of high-pressure and low-pressure regions. The interaction of this pressure wave with particles around it is what generates the noise we hear. From the origin point, the wave moves forward, like a snake sinuously sliding across the ground, eventually fizzling out, depending on things like temperature and the density of the material it’s passing through. But the problem we run into is that without the medium of vibrating particles, we can’t hear the pressure wave. Very frustrating.

There is hope! Well, a little at least. There’s something else out there that also moves as a wave. Anybody? Anybody? Bueller? Bueller?

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And then there was… Light! Conveniently, radio waves are a part of the electromagnetic spectrum, and we can use them to carry sound across the vast vacuums of space. (I say “vacuums” because space, while big, isn’t completely empty. Density of particles is just a lot thicker in some areas than others. Like nebulae.) So, there you go. Sound in space.

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Hm. I feel like I’m leaving something out. Oh. Right. “Audible.” Which means it has to be heard. In the case of a regular sound wave in space, it generally doesn’t get far enough to be sensed, and in the case of radio waves, you need a converter to get the sound. Of course, a definition of “audible” is also “capable of being heard”… and I think an argument can be made that these things are definitely “capable of being heard”… under the right circumstances.

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So there you have it. No sound in space… but sound in space. Does this justify the constant auditory effects during space battles the main forms of media produce? Not in the slightest. On the other hand, it would be pretty boring just watching the bangs and booms without hearing them. So it may not be what would actually happen, like a heart monitor sounding when someone flatlines, but it’s used to bring understanding to the audience.

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Maybe we need a new term for this paradox of “sound but not sound.” Pressure waves are called “mechanical” or “matter” waves, but that only applies to them. It doesn’t include radio waves at all. How about “ante-sound”? Mmm. Nah. Or “pre-sound”? Better. “Proto-sound”? My favorite. 😉

(Hey, if Pluto can get a new title of “dwarf planet,” why can’t unheard sound get its own name?)