Sound is a mechanical wave. It requires a medium (substance) to travel because it relies on particles bumping into each other to pass the energy along. The speed of sound changes drastically depending on the medium it is travelling through.
If you put your ear directly to the steel track of a railway line, you will hear the sound of an approaching train through the steel long before you hear the sound of the train through the air.
Sound travels fastest in Solids (like Aluminium, Steel, or Iron).
Here is the general order of speed: Solids > Liquids > Gases
The speed of sound depends on how closely packed the particles of the medium are.
To put this into perspective, here is the approximate speed of sound at room temperature:
No. Space is a vacuum (meaning there is no air or particles). Since sound requires a medium of vibrating particles to travel, sound cannot travel in a vacuum. It is completely silent.
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