View a collection of sound animations, which depict how a source of sound waves pushes against particles to carry energy away without matter being displaced.

Explore a visual and auditory guide to wave properties and waveforms to learn how every sound imaginable can be created by combining multiple vibrations of air.

Interacting sound waves can create regions where the pressure from each wave combines, allowing objects to levitate in place against gravity or be manipulated for touch-free construction.

Listen to the 'sounds' of the universe with this sonification library, where astronomers have transformed certain astronomical data sets into audio for broader engagement.

Objects that move faster than the speed of sound—Mach 1—create shockwaves called sonic booms by building up and forcing sound waves to combine as they lag behind the object.

A sound's pitch will seem to change if the listener or the source moves toward or away from the other because motion changes the time it takes each successive sound wave to reach the listener.

We hear because soundwaves are converted into electrochemical signals in our ears

This science teacher video systematically walks through the biology of the outer, middle, and inner ear. The explanation starts with the auricle, an external part that funnels sound through the auditory canal, and the tympanic membrane (the ear drum), which vibrates when sounds hit it. Beyond that, as the video details, is the eustachian tube, which is connected to the back of our throats and allows air to pass in and out to equalize ear pressure.

By igniting flammable gas in a tube filled with holes and playing music into it, the fire will take the shape of the sound waves, enabling the visualization of audio.

The four types of seismic waves—vibrations that carry energy generated by geological events, such as earthquakes—are categorized as body or surface waves.

When struck, objects vibrate at unique rates called resonant frequencies, which makes tapping wood sound different from tapping metal, but providing objects with sound at their resonant frequency can cause them to shatter.

Oscillating matter in the early universe left behind patterns detailing cosmic expansion

As gravity tried to bring matter closer together in the early universe, its high temperature produced an outward pressure that caused it to expand. These competing forces caused matter to vibrate and produce the equivalent of sound waves, which spread outward as the universe expanded and cooled, serving as relics of dark energy's history.

With sufficiently sensitive hearing and powerful equipment, if a source of music traveled past someone at twice the speed of sound, they would hear the music backward.

Listen to samples of 'sounds' produced in the sun's interior, created from the sonification of internal vibrations detected by the Parker Solar Probe.

Wave-particle duality—a simple overview

Our notion of reality is built on everyday experiences. But wave-particle duality is so strange that we are forced to re-examine our common conceptions. Wave-particle duality refers to the fundamental…

Probability waves govern particles like electrons in the quantum space

Just as waves are extended objects whose heights change across space, quantum waves dictate that the probability of an object existing in different locations across space varies. Like water waves, the probability waves can combine, changing the heights—and therefore probabilities—in different locations.

View the quantum mechanical depiction of electrons as waves around the atomic nucleus

Unlike Bohr's fixed paths, the quantum model describes electrons as exhibiting behavior resembling standing waves—waves that have fixed points at the end while vibrating, like a plucked guitar string. Rather than determining their exact positions, only the probabilities of electrons being in a specific region can be determined.

Quantum field theory reveals that particles are ripples in universal fields

Instead of being made of indivisible particles, all visible matter in the universe is built from underlying quantum fields—smooth, invisible entities that behave like waves. The theory suggests these fields are fundamental, and particles are disturbances that move through them.

Listen to the pair of colliding black holes detected by LIGO

As ripples in spacetime, gravitational waves do not produce sound, which is the perception of specific vibrations in matter (e.g., vocal cords vibrating air molecules). The "chirp" of gravitational waves comes instead from converting the spacetime ripples into sound waves that the human ear can hear.

The three smallest bones in the human body—the malleus, incus, and stapes—amplify the vibrations of sound waves by almost 20 times to help enable hearing.

Visualize the components of fireworks

This article provides animated diagrams depicting how different parts of fireworks function. The elements work together through timed mechanisms to produce desired effects.

Variations in rapidly expanding gas and mechanical elements produce fireworks sounds

Chemical compounds designed to vibrate rapidly when ignited produce whistling, screeching sounds, while crackles and pops are created by small star pellets inside the firework, which explode one after another quickly. Fluttering and chirping sounds are produced by spinning elements that rotate rapidly as the firework ascends.

The bullwhip was the first human-made object to break the sound barrier, producing a small sonic boom heard as a crack when flicked quickly.

Studying 'sonic' black holes

If a fish screams as it falls down a cascading waterfall accelerating to ridiculous speeds, will his fish friends above hear him scream? This analogy, odd as it is, has become an essential tool in the astrophysicists kit for learning how enigmatic black holes operate. Lab experiments mirroring the so-called sonic black hole have achieved insights for their cosmic counterparts. Read how it works in this brief piece.

Listen to the sounds of pulsars, which emit radio pulses up to hundreds of times a second

Just as figure skaters spin faster by tucking in their arms, these celestial objects acquire high rates of spin from the collapse of the cores of massive stars. The star's rotation spins its magnetic field, generating beams of radio waves from its magnetic poles. If either of these poles faces a detector, the signals can be picked up and converted to audio signals.

The wave nature of matter can produce phenomena like negative time and retrocausality

Within quantum mechanics, matter simultaneously exists as both fixed particles and extended waves, allowing it to emerge across barriers—just as sound travels through walls—before it fully enters the obstacle. The resulting measurements can show that particles spent negative time within a barrier, with the future occurring before the past.

Quantum mechanics explains how particles behave like both matter and waves

In the quantum world, particles such as electrons are “quantized,” meaning they can only hold specific values of energy or momentum. These particles also behave like waves, with their wave function predicting where they might be found at any moment as probability clouds called orbitals.

View 3D renderings of atomic orbitals created with quantum mechanics

Scientists use the Schrödinger equation to determine how a system governed by a wavefunction—an equation that predicts the probability of certain outcomes—evolves with time. Computers can animate atomic structure and behavior by depicting the wavefunction as a fluid that guides a particle, like water moving a speck of dust.

Through sonoluminescence, concentrated sound waves can produce short, high-intensity flashes of light by rapidly collapsing microscopic bubbles to temperatures up to twice that of the sun's surface.

Light echoes are expanding shells of reflected starlight

Just as sound waves reveal the location of obstacles by reflecting off them, pulses of light emitted by stars illuminate rings of interstellar dust, giving the appearance of ejected material as the light travels outward.

When experiencing turbulence, fluid elements undergo stretching and folding

Simulations show patches of fluid particles, such as splashes of milk, bend under turbulent flow, creating curvature that grows linearly then exponentially. This accelerated deformation enhances folding and mixing faster than other methods, such as stirring or beating.