Motion — Science STD 9 — Question

Sound cannot travel through vacuum. This can be shown by the following experiment:

1. A ringing electric bell is placed inside an air tight glass jar containing air. We can hear the sound of ringing bell clearly. Thus, when air is present as medium in the bell jar, sound can travel through it and reach our ears.
2. The bell jar containing ringing bell is placed over the plate of a vacuum pump. Air is gradually removed from the bell jar by switching on the vacuum pump. As more and more air is removed from the bell jar, the sound of ringing bell becomes fainter and fainter. And when all the air is removed from the bell jar, no sound can be heard at all. Thus, when vacuum is created in the bell jar, then the sound of ringing bell placed inside it cannot be heard.

This shows that sound cannot travel through vacuum.