eli5: How does tying 2 pieces of string together and talking actually work?
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Sound is vibrations of the air, and these vibrations can travel through anything that can vibrate – which is basically everything!
When you tie a string through the bottom of two cans, the string is carrying the vibrations from one can to the other.
*In practice:* you speak, which is the vibration of your vocal chords, causing the air to vibrate, which hits the bottom of the can, causing it to vibrate. The string, connected to the bottom of the can, starts to vibrate, sending those vibrations to the other can. The bottom of the other can then vibrates, causing the air to vibrate, which the other person can now hear!
Assuming you’re talking about tin can phones, it works because it’s just vibration being relayed through different mediums, ie air to can to strand, and then back. Air isn’t super great at conducting sound over distance, but solid objects (and liquids too actually) are much denser and can relay at a much higher velocity and over greater distance.
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