Why does sound travel better through solids but it is dampened when it finds a wall?

Question

I have been taught that a solid state medium helps the vibrations of the particles traverse better through it than in a gas state medium, so why a sound wave travels through air but it stops when it finds a solid object like a wall?

In: Physics

Answer 1

Sound travels very easily through solid material because vibrations transfer directly. Most walls have spaces which will disperse sound waves, kind of like how light refracts through the other side of a crystal prism. Also more similarly, how seismic waves refract through earth’s layers.