Why does sound travel faster through steel than it does wood?

Answer 1

Sounds travels faster though steel because it is denser than wood. This means that it is heavier, and more solid. As well as this, the particles are more compact in steel. This means that the vibrations are passed on from one to the next quicker, so we hear the sound quicker.

Answer 2

Sound is faster in wood than air, but when the speed in wood is compared to other materials it is sometimes faster and sometimes slower.

(See table in related links.)

Sound velocity is influenced by several parameters, but the real determination is based on the stiffness of the material and the density. These are affected by temperature, and in the case of wood, depends on dryness and species and other growth variables.

The simple equation for sound velocity (c) is:

c = square root ( s / p )

where:

s = coefficient of stiffness of the material

p = material density

The speed of sound in wood varies in the range of 3,300 m/s to 4,000 m/s depending on the quantities mentioned above. This is about ten times the speed in air because the stiffness of wood is much much greater than the stiffness of air while the density of wood is several hundred times the density of air.

For other materials, this competition between stiffness and density ends up with speeds greater than wood and less than wood.

Answer 3

Steel is both denser and more homogeneous than wood; in wood you have air mixed in with cellulose and lignin fibers, which has a damping effect on sound.

Answer 4

Density. When the sound travels through relatively denser materials than air or water, it speeds up due to the interactions of particles being closer to each other.

Answer 5

I'm not a scientist but my guess would be it's because metals are crystalline structures that vibrate or resonate easily. Wood is an amorphous combination of solids, liquids and small voids.

Answer 6

steel sound waves always go faster in solids