Question

Why is sound heard when a ball strikes the floor?
A. The air particles from the floor flow into our ears.
B. The air particles from the floor vibrate and pass the signal to our ears.
C. The air particles from the floor vibrate and produce transverse waves which flow through the air into our ears.
D. The wavelength of the sound wave is large enough to produce the sound.

Answer 1

Hint: As we know air particles are responsible for the propagation of sound to the human’s ears. We will explain how air particles propagate the sound to our ears. With the help of many particle vibrations, we can hear any type of sound. In vacuum, we can’t hear any sound.

Complete answer:
When a ball strikes on the floor, it vibrates the air molecules around it to give sound.When our ears process sound waves generated by an object, we hear. By vibrating, the object creates waves. When an object vibrates, it creates a force that pushes on the air around it. The vibrations cause the air to expand and compress (rarefaction). As the music travels in waves towards our ears, this creates areas of high and low pressure.

For eg:- Take a metal spring, such as a Slinky, as an example. The spring bunches up when you push on one end of it. The clumped-up area steadily makes its way down the length of the spring until it reaches the opposite end. This is similar to high-pressure zones in sound waves.

The bunched-up area will start to expand out as the spring progresses. This is similar to low-pressure zones in sound waves. In other words, as the wave travels from a vibrating object to your ear, some portions clump up and others expand out.Similarly, we hear sound when a ball strikes the floor, the air particles from the floor vibrate and pass the signal to our ears.

Hence, the correct option is B.

Note: In near-empty regions of space, we can't hear anything. Sound moves through a medium through vibrating atoms and molecules (such as air or water). Sound cannot travel in space because there is no air.