Silent Moon

[bainbrig]

Is the moon silent? And did the astronauts record the silence? Just struck me that it must be the most profound silence, quieter than anything known here on earth.

BB

[Mamyalynne]

Yes, it is silent, it has no atmosphere to transmit sounds.

[bainbrig]

a) does sound need gas to be heard?

b) did they try recording on the moon, do you know?

B

[spathiphyllum]

"a) does sound need gas to be heard? "

It needs something to vibrate through. Solid, liquid, gas. Obviously it passes best through solids. Then liquids, not so well through gas.

[spathiphyllum]

but still well. Just not as good as a solid.

[Sipowicz]

In space, no one can hear you scream!

[xenoblast]

There is sound on the Moon. We just can’t hear it. For sound to travel from the source to our ears, it needs a medium to travel through. Just about anything can be that medium, but once you get to a certain density, either too low or too high, our ears stop being able to pick it up. On earth, the two most common mediums for sound to travel through are air and water. Basically, we need an atmosphere of some sort to transmit sound as it’s the vibration of the molecules and atoms in the atmosphere that sound propagates. And the moon does indeed have an atmosphere. It’s not composed of the same elements as Earth’s atmosphere, but that hardly matters as far as sound cares. Atmosphere is atmosphere. But the atmosphere on the Moon is considerably less dense than Earth’s. So the vibrations from one atom to the next is much much slower. Not sure if that would affect volume or pitch though. Either way, it’s too low for us to hear.

[bainbrig]

Thanks xeno, comprehensive.

Pushing the idea a bit, could the 'noise' of the moon be recorded, and then replayed at different pitches, etc., in order to hear what is there? I'm thinking of whales, and their VLF abilities.

Any thoughts?

[spathiphyllum]

you've obviously not heard...

[xenoblast]

you may find this link very interesting

http://canyouactually.com/nasa-actually-recorded-sound-in-space-and-its-absolutely-chilling/

[bainbrig]

Interesting, yes, but not quite somebody sticking a microphone out of the window of their rocket.

A Buddhist meditation:

Everything changes, everything passes,
Things appearing, things disappearing.
But when all is over-everything having appeared and having disappeared,
Being and extinction both transcended.-
Still the basic emptiness and silence abides,
And that is blissful Peace.

And silence abides. Perhaps many are seeking that silence.

BillB

[Sipowicz]

.

[bainbrig]

Thanks sipowicz, I'm convinced...

BB

[hereIam]

I love the moon.

[Arksided]

I keep being told to put some clothes on. I have no idea whet they mean.

[xenoblast]

Bainbrig, setting aside your disparaging remark at 15.47 29/04:

All sorts of things on this world and others are silent to human ears. That does not mean they make no sound or can be described as 'Silent'. One could not record any sounds in Space or on a planet using conventional methods.Space is a virtual vacuum. However, sound does exist in the form of electromagnetic vibrations that pulsate in similar wavelengths. What NASA did was design special instruments that could record these electromagnetic vibrations, and transferred them into sounds that our ears could hear. However, I doubt they hung these instruments out of the window of their rocket.

[bainbrig]

Xeno, xeno, not disparaging, not in the least. But an ‘interpretation’ of what something might sound like if we could hear it is a little removed from hearing it.

You’re obviously far more expert than me in this field, but believe me I don’t really think they hang mikes out of windows...

[xenoblast]

Bainbridge ,

Last paragraph of your preceding post: I'm quite aware of that, a half- hearted attempt at humour I'm afraid.

Taking into account your responses to answers on your thread I would assume you meant to question ' Is the moon silent to the Human Ear? My answer would be Yes. '...and did the astronauts record the silence?' My answer would be that they recorded electromagnetic vibrations, and transferred them into sounds that our ears could hear.

[bainbrig]

Very precise, xeno. I defer, I was wrong, and my attempts at humour were feeble, if well-intentioned.

I shall retire into Blissful Peace.

BillB