If sound can’t travel through space, why can you hear in spaceships?

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This probably sounds like a dumb question but I would really appreciate some help! I am very very interested in space but I don’t understand complex topics very well because of my learning disability. When I tried to google this I really couldn’t understand the explanations 🙁 thank you if anyone responds, I really appreciate it!!

Edit: thank you all for responding so helpfully and so quickly, its so nice to not be talked down to for not understanding things

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10 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Sound travels through things like air and water, but since space is mostly empty the sound has nothing to travel through.

Since there’s air inside a spaceship sound can be created and travel through the spaceship.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Space itself is a vaccum. Inside a ship there is oxygen and air pressure.

I know its short but easiest explination

Anonymous 0 Comments

Because you are inside the ship, so the sound can travel through the air in the ship, and the ship itself.

You won’t hear it if you float next to it

Anonymous 0 Comments

The reason sound doesn’t travel in space is because there’s nothing to travel _through_ – space is a vacuum. Sound is a wave, and needs a medium to travel through. Just like water waves travel through water, sound can only travel if there’s something for it to move through. Sound is basically a form of vibrations that our ears can pick up. But if there are no atoms to vibrate then it can’t travel. In spaceships they have air so that the astronauts can breathe without wearing their suits so the sound can travel through that air.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Inside the ship you have brought Earth atmosphere with you. There is oxygen and nitrogen that can be compressed to make sound waves that hit your eardrum and make sounds. Outside the ship there’s no Earth atmosphere. No oxygen, no anything that can be compressed into sound waves and hit your eardrum.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Sound is waves that travel through a medium. The main one we always talk about is air, but it can travel through water, wood etc.

In space there is no air for sound to travel through, hence why sound can’t travel through space. In a spaceship though, there will be air for sound to travel through, as well as materials like metal etc. Sounds that you typically hear on the spaceship though are created in that spaceship.

Anonymous 0 Comments

The spaceship is full of air. The sound travels through the air.

You know, just like how the Earth is in space but has an atmosphere so we can hear sound that travels through the air.

Anonymous 0 Comments

So in our normal air there are many particles. These particles get moved if you for example open your mouth and say something. Like moving your hand through water and small waves expand. So the particles basically hit each other and create soundwaves. These soundwaves can be detected and uncoded by your ear. But a vacuum has little to none particles and if your voice try’s to move them only a few or even non get pushed. So the lack of many particles makes it for the particles impossible to hit each other and create the „wace“. The spaceship basically mimics the earth because there is air. And then the particles can hit again.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Sound can’t travel through a vacuum because it requires a medium to propagate through. Space is a vacuum, but inside the spaceship is full of air, so any sound made inside the spaceship will travel and can be heard inside the spaceship.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Soundwaves need something trough which they can travel, whether this medium is air, water or a solid object.

Space is a vacuum, therefore sound can’t travel trough space.