Does sound carry further at night?

Answer 1

Due to total internal reflection of sound, sound is heard distinctly at night than during day time.

By day time due to sunlight, the air near the surface of the earth is hotter than the atmospheric air above. Then the lower layer of the air acts as rarer medium and the sound on the surface of the earth is refracted to upper layer.

But by night the upper layer of the atmosphere is hotter than the lower layer. Hence, the sound waves are totally reflected back to the surface. Thus, the sound is heard more distinctly in night-time than in night-time.

Answer 2

The speed of sound in air has nothing to do with light or darknes or high or low airpressure. I has only to do with the temperature. At a higher temperature during day the speed of sound is faster than at the lower temperature at night. The speed of sound at 10°C or 50°F is 337 m/s. The speed of sound at 30°C or 86°F is 349 m/s. Here is a nice helper to calculate the speed of sound. Scroll down to related links and look at "Speed of Sound".

Answer 3

Sounds do carry better and farther at night. Because it tends to be quieter then,

individual sounds are easier to distinguish. By far the most important factor, however, is a difference in the temperature structure of the lower few hundred feet of the atmosphere between day and night.

Sound travels through cold, dense air more slowly than through warmer, less dense

air. When air temperatures change on the path along which sound waves are

traveling, the waves always bend toward the colder air.

By day, it's warmer near the ground and colder above; sound bends up and away from the ground (and you). At night, it's colder near the ground and warmer above; sound waves bend down.

Answer 4

the common sounds of daytime are missing like---telephone conversations---traffic --appliances---television are all off so they cannot absorb noise. also talk in an unfurnished office building and your voice really carries

Answer 5

Cold air has a higher speed of sound, and lower thermal dispersion to "diffuse" the sound energy. Additionally, it is quieter at night (in general), so your brain does not have to filter out quieter sounds as being unimportant.

Answer 6

Sound travels just as far during the night as it does during the day,

since the only one thing that can affect sound transmission is the

composition of the medium... In this case, the medium is air, and the

composition of air does not change between night and day in any way that

would signifficantly change the way sound travels...

However, you have made an observation about how sound travels at night,

and indeed, you can hear distant sounds more clearly during the night

than during the day... But why is that?

The human ear becomes less sensitive to weak sounds in the prescence of

louder sounds. This phenomenon is called masking. During the day, the

ambient noise level tends to be higher, because there are cars driving on

the streets, people walking by, doors opening and closing, birds flapping

their wings and singing, and so on. The prescense of all this sounds

during the day makes it hard to hear faint distant sounds, not because

their waves cannot travel as far, the waves travel just as far, but our

sensitivity to those sounds is impaired by the masking phenomenon. We

could say that the ambient noise "masks" your friend shouting in the

distance.

During the night, everyone is asleep, very few, almost no cars at all can

be seen driving by, most birds are asleep too, and it is generally more

quiet. Since it is so quiet, its also easy to hear a faint distant sound

very easily.

Sometimes echo may also mater.