Science Common Sense

240 - How does sound get louder or softer?

Sound gets louder or softer because of the energy of the vibrations that create it. Here's how it works:

Imagine you're plucking a guitar string. When you pluck it hard, the string vibrates a lot, and these vibrations travel through the air as sound waves. The more energy you use to pluck the string, the bigger the vibrations and the louder the sound.

But if you pluck it softly, the vibrations are smaller, and the sound is softer. It's like a ripple in a pond: if you throw a big stone, the ripple is big, but if you throw a small stone, the ripple is small.

So, sound gets louder or softer because of how much energy is used to make the vibrations that create the sound.