Hello fellow students!

I’m going to discuss the similarities and differences with sound and light. I’m going to make a list and focus on the similarities first. After a brief statement on how the similarities relate, I’ll make another list on the differences. After doing some research on sound and light, and after watching the course videos, I made up the list and tried to explain the best way I knew how in my own words. There are possibly more similarities and differences then the ones I have written here.

Similarities with sound and light:

1.    Spectrums! When perceived by humans, both sound and light use specific spectrums.

a.    Sound lives in frequency.

b.    Light uses a visible spectrum.

2.    Waves! Sound and light both travel in waves.

a.    Sound and light waves have the same physical characteristics.

b.    Sound and light waves move in a similar way.

c.    Sound and light can be reflected or absorbed by objects.

3.    Doppler effects! According to Larry Rivers, “both waves exhibit the Doppler effect.”

a.    Sound and light waves rise in frequency as they get closer and lower as they move away.

Differences with sound and light:

1.    Light is made of waves and particles. Sound is only made of waves.

2.    Sound produces mechanical waves and light produces electromagnetic waves.

3.    Light waves can travel in a vacuum and sound waves can’t.

4.    Light waves travel faster.

5.    Light can be seen and sound can be heard.

These similarities and differences are put together from the research I’ve done on the subject. There is possibly more of each that can be found, but for a basic understanding on how light and sound relate to one another, this will work nicely. 

I have always thought about if light and sound could be captured. I would imagine that everyone has tried or seen the trick done where you take a can and scream into it, close it quickly, and then open it later hoping to hear a scream. I have tried this and I have never heard a thing. I just think if it is possible then how would it actually work. I suppose we do have a way of capturing and controlling light and sound. If we record ourselves talking, we can play it back and this gives us light and sound. I suppose my question should be, is it possible to capture rouge light and sound waves from random places? While researching light and sound waves, I learned that both can be reflected off objects. If the light and sound waves could be tracked and certain objects could be placed in the path, perhaps it could be possible.

Rivers L. (2014). The similarities between sound waves and light. eHow. Retrieved from http://www.ehow.com/info_8524844_similarities-between-sound-waves-light.html