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SCIENCE
QUARTER 3 – MODULE 5

SOUND

MELC: Describe how light, sound and heat travel.

 S4FE-IIIf-g-4
Part I.

A. Introduction
Be still for a minute. Activate your sense of hearing and listen attentively to various
sounds from your surroundings. Describe the sounds you heard. Can you identify the sources
of these sounds?
Almost every moving object, alive or not, produces sound. From the tiniest insect to a
growling tiger, from the smallest drop of water to the biggest drilling machine, living or non-
living things make sound.
In this module, you will find out how sound travels in different materials.

B. Discussion
Sound is produced when things vibrate. Sound energy is produced by the vibration of
matter. Vibration is a back-and-forth movement of molecules causing the air around the
object to follow a pattern called sound waves.
Do you know how sound energy is produced in your body? Put your fingers on your
neck and say “Hello”. Observe what happens to your vocal cords inside your neck while you
are talking. Sound energy is produced in your body when your vocal cords vibrate.

Image taken from Conceptual Science and Beyond 4

Molecules in matter may be made to vibrate by blowing or striking them. String

instruments, like guitar, piano and harp produce sound when you pluck the strings. Sound is
generated too when you strike objects with solid plates, like drums, xylophone, and cymbals.
A whistle or a flute has a column of air in its structure. When air is blown in its column, air is
set into motion. When air reaches the end of the tube completely, sound radiates into the
surrounding.

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 A sound wave travels at different speeds through different media. As it travels, sound
wave is created in response to a vibration and how easily they move back to their original
position. Another cause is how strongly the particles are attached or attracted to each other.
When a vibration is slow, slow moving waves are produced. When the vibration is
fast, fast moving wave is produced.
Sound waves travel to our ears, and our brain detects them as sounds. Sound waves
travel only through matter. Without vibrating matter, sound is not produced. Where do you
think sound travels the fastest – through molecules that are very close to one another as in
solids, or through molecules that are far apart as in gases?

C. Readings
Children can often identify the source of a sound and they know that their ear is
required to detect it, but they have difficulty in understanding what happens in between.
The vibrating sound source moves in such a way that the air around it is also made to
move. Imagine a drum skin being hit hard with a beater. The skin moves to one side and
squashes or compresses the air next to it. This compressed air "pocket" in turn pushes and
compresses the air next to it while the "pocket" itself bounces back towards the position it
came from. The compressing effect and stretching effect therefore moves outwards from the
sound source. The movement of the air back and forth is itself a rapid vibration and the
movement of the effect outwards is in a wave form. Eventually the effect reaches the ear and
is made into signals which are sent to the brain.

https://www.le.ac.uk/se/centres/sci/selfstudy/snd2.htm

Sound vibrations, then, travel outwards in all directions in waves from a sound source.
As they travel outwards the energy, they contain becomes dissipated and therefore the sound

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becomes weaker the further it is from the source. The shape of a sound wave with no
obstacles in its way would be approximately spherical.
The figure (from page 2) shows the air as particles or molecules. Where the molecules
are pushed closer together is an area of compression and when they spring back (even further
apart than before) there is an area of rarefaction. It can be seen that while the wave of
compressed molecules moves away from the source, the molecules themselves only move a
very small distance to and from. Thus, the air does not flow from the source to the ear - an
idea often held by children.
A very good way of demonstrating how the molecules of a substance behave when
transmitting a sound is to use a "slinky" spring extended on a desk surface. Push one end
rapidly and a wave is sent along the length of the spring. It is possible to see the wave bounce
back (an echo) and of course to see that the parts of the spring (representing the molecules)
do not move along with the wave but merely "vibrate" back and forth.

Look at “slinky”.
movement of wave

push

https://sketchok.com/cartoon-characters/toy-story/how-to-draw-slinky-dog-toy-story/

Sound waves are called longitudinal waves because the particles move back and
forth in the direction of the wave movement. A transverse wave is like a wave on the sea in
which the particles of water move vertically and not in the direction of the wave itself. for
this reason, it is a good idea to avoid likening a sound wave to the ripples on a pond or the
wave produced by a skipping rope attached to a wall.
Sound is like light in some ways: it travels out from a definite source (such as an
instrument or a noisy machine), just as light travels out from the Sun or a light bulb. But there

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are some very important differences between light and sound as well. We know light can
travel through a vacuum because sunlight has to race through the vacuum of space to reach us
on Earth. Sound, however, cannot travel through a vacuum: it always has to have something
to travel through (known as a medium), such as air, water, glass, or metal.

Remember:
Sound waves need to travel through a medium such as solids, liquids and gases. The
sound waves move through each of these mediums by vibrating the molecules in the matter.
The molecules in solids are packed very tightly. Liquids are not packed as tightly. And gases
are very loosely packed. This enables sound to travel much faster through a solid than a gas.
Sound travels about four times faster and farther in water than it does in air. This is why
whales can communicate over huge distances in the oceans. Sound waves travel about
thirteen times faster in wood than air. They also travel faster on hotter days as the molecules
bump into each other more often than when it is cold.

D. Examples

SOLID LIQUID GAS

Sound travels Sound travels Sound travels

fastest. faster. the slowest.

Molecules are Molecules are Molecules are

packed packed not packed
together together, but together
tightly. not tightly. closely. There is
a lot of space
between the
molecules.

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Part II. Activity Proper
Activity 1
Directions: Choose the word from the box what is described in each number, then find and
circle the word in the grid.

A F A S T C E L L B G T P H M F K N O I L
G L Q R O E A H A Y O G L R A P O O G K A
L T T S P S R V A C U U M A E I R I T O G
M E R V I L O I S B V B O S T T E S I G H
B F A S T E R U S V A P R A N C M E C E S
O I V I B R A T N O S E R Y D H O L O W A
J W E E K K N M A D N B E F L A A L O A D
X Z L A D V E N O M I D S M E D I U M E O
O P S C N G J A E V P I D O S T B O E X E

1. vibration travelling through matter

MEDIUM

SOUND
2. the liquid which sound travels through – maybe
solid, liquid or ga. TRAVELS

NOISE

3. sound does this faster in water than in air VIBRATION

WAVES
4. quick movement back and forth about a point

5. unwanted or discordant sound

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Activity 2
Take extra care. Ask an adult to supervise you.
Directions: Perform the activities and answer the questions that follow.
1. Find a table. With the use of a stick, gently tap the table. What did you hear? Did you
hear a sound when you tapped the table with a stick? Do this for at least five times
with different strengths of tapping. Try from gentle to a hard tap. What happened to
the sound when you tapped the table with different strengths?

Image taken from Science 4 Learner’s Materials

___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
2. Make a walkie – talkie with two empty soup cans and some string. Hammer a hole
into the closed ends of the cans. Pull a string or wire through the opening and tie
washers to the ends so they cannot come out through the holes. Place a tape along the
edges of the open end of the can for safety. Talk into one can while your friend listens
in the other. Pull the string or wire taut. Why can he or she hear you? Place one can
under water and listen to the other while your friend splashes. Do you hear anything?
Why?

Image taken from Conceptual Science and Beyond 4

___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________

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 Key to Correction

Part II. Activity Proper

Activity 1

1. SOUND
2. MEDIUM
3. TRAVELS
4. VIBRATION
5. NOISE

Activity 2
1. When you tap the table, you cause the molecules in the table to vibrate and the vibrations
travel through the table like they do through the air. The molecules in solids are arranged
differently than the molecules in gases and most of the time it is easier for sound waves to
travel through solids. This means that the waves have more energy when they reach your ears
– and more energy means a louder noise.
2. When the children talk into the can, the vibrating air vibrates the can. These vibrations are
transmitted through the wire or string. Wire vibrates more effectively than string. Children
should hear sound underwater because the water vibrates.

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Part III. Summative Evaluation
A. Directions: Fill in the blanks with the correct answer from the option given in the box.

brain liquids mind sound waves

energy longitudinal waves solids transverse waves
light medium sound vibration

1. Sound is a form of ____________.

2. Sound travels fastest through _________.
3. The molecules in ________ are packed tightly.
4. Through a _________, sound can travel faster.
5. Without vibrating bodies, ________ is not produced.
6. Slow moving waves are produced when the ____________ is fast.
7. Sound waves travel to our ears and our ________ detects them as sounds.
8. Sound is like _______ in some ways because it travels out from a definite source.
9. _____________ is an area of particles that moves outward in all directions from a
vibrating object.
10. Sound waves are _________________ because particles of the medium through which
the sound is transported vibrate parallel to the direction that the sound wave moves.

B. Directions: Encircle the letter of the correct answer.

1. When a sound wave travels from one place to another, what is transported?
A. air B. density C. energy D. water
2. A back and forth movement that produces sound is called _________________.
A. air B. molecules C. particles D. vibration
3. Which of the following scenarios would result in sound being produced?
A. taking a nap B. sharpening your pencil
C. looking out a window D. thinking about your homework
4. Why is sound able to travel faster through a solid than a gas?
A. Gas molecules move slowly.
B. Solid molecules move slowly.
C. Gas molecules are packed tightly.
D. Solid molecules are packed tightly.

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5. How sound and light similar?
A. Both can travel out from a definite source.
B. Both can be transformed into heat energy.
C. Sound and light are made up of vibrations.
D. Sound and light waves can curve around solid objects.

C. Directions: Think about what you have learned. Write your answers on the spaces
provided.

1. Mia and her sister were playing in a field that had an iron railing running alongside it.
When it was time to go home, Mia called to her brother from the opposite side of the field,
but she did not hear her. She decided to tap the iron rail to attract his attention. Why this was
a good idea?
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________

2. Tap two medium sized stone in a pail half filled with water. Be careful not to spill the
water when you tap the stones. Observe what happens when the stones hit each other. Were
you able to produce sound underwater when you struck/hit two stones together? Why? Where
do sound waves travel faster; water, air or solid?
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________

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 RUBRICS FOR EVALUATING THE ANSWERED ESSAY OF THE PUPILS

Criteria 1 2 3 4 Score
Information
Information Information
clearly relates to
Information has relates to the clearly relates to
the main topic. It
Focus/Main little or nothing to main topic. No the main topic. It
provides 1-2
Point do with the main detail and/or includes several
supporting
topic examples are supporting details
details and/or
given and/or examples
examples

Information is
Information is
Information is very organized
The information organized, but
organized with with well-
Organization appears to be paragraphs are
well-constructed constructed
disorganized not well-
paragraphs paragraphs and
constructed
subheadings

Many A few Almost no

No grammatical,
grammatical, grammatical, grammatical,
spelling or
Mechanics spelling or spelling or spelling or
punctuation
punctuation punctuation punctuation
errors
errors errors errors

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 Key to Correction

Part III. Summative Evaluation

A.
1. energy 6. vibration
2. solids 7. brain
3. liquids 8. light
4. medium 9. sound waves
5. sound 10. longitudinal waves
B.
1. C
2. D
3. B
4. D
5. A
C. (Teacher’s Discretion)
1. It was a good idea to tap the iron rail to attract his brother’s attention because vibrations
travel further and faster in solids than through air.
2. Yes, we were able to produce sound underwater when you struck/hit two stones together
because sound waves move through the water. Sound waves travel faster in water than in air
Sound waves tend to travel more slowly in liquid than in solids. Sound travel fastest through
solids.

References:
A. Books
The Science Writing Team. 2015. Science 4 Learner’s Material. Mabini Building,
DepEd Complex, Meralco Avenue, Pasig City. Lexicon Press, Inc.
Sheila Vencio-Diaz, Candice R. Mapilisan. 2015. Conceptual Science and Beyond 4.
Bonanda plaza 2 Block 1, Lot 6, Hilltop Subdivision Greater Lagro, Novaliches,
Quezon City.

B. Online Resources
https://www.le.ac.uk/se/centres/sci/selfstudy/snd2.htm
https://www.explainthatstuff.com/sound.html

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