Have you ever heard someone say "You can't hear explosions in outer space?" What do you think after watching this video?

I love that you have the answer on the thumbnail, respecting your audience's intelligence

Ahhh you've explained something so simply that I've tried to explain to ppl for years! Thank you!!

Sound in space explanation: All ships, especially fighters would be equipped with Audio Awareness Systems, so pilots can hear what's happening around them. External sensors (radar, cameras, radio), encode this data into sounds and play it back through an array of speakers surrounding the pilot. So, if someone is shooting at you from the left, upper rear, you hear sounds that represent the weapon fire, and can react by turning to attack them, or run in the opposite direction, without having to look at a screen first. If movies were recorded in some future space battle, they'd most certainly include sounds generated by AAS to enhance the viewer's understanding of what's happening.

The movie 2001: A Space Odyssey does a great job illustrating sound travel through space particularly in scene where astronaut returns to spacecraft via airlock - sound gradually increases as air fills the airlock chamber.

So a jet flying by my side would be silent but one flying in front of me would be audible because the gases leaving the exhaust are hitting my ship?

I think u should start a series of electronic components U can explain all the electronics components in one series There is no proper video or playlist in UKposts so u can start

Excellent video! Great explanation for this concept, which is possibly counter-intuitive for a lot of people. And yet, my favorite part is the adorable little nudge at 2:55

Fantastic quality of explanation. Addresses concepts both thoroughly and simply.

There are 2 types of mic, one vibrate based on the material natural frequency and one based on pressure (which is the one you are referring here). Our ears has both principles to sense the sound. So based on what you have explained, it makes sense to hear the sound, but might not sound the same as here on earth (from its amp and freq). Nevertheless, I would say that you will hear the plasma canon too based on your explanation - might not sound like pew pew tho 😅

Nice, thanks for sharing, would love to see this version of Star Wars.

it depends on distance. If the your ship was directly next to the exploding ship, you would be more likely to hear something The exploding ship would release gases and technically sound could travel along with them. However, since space is a vacuum, these gases will spread out very rapidly and the density will drop off very fast with distance from the explosion. (If you think about it, the amount of air in the ship is probably not very large compared to the volume of space between two ships.) So by the time the explosion reached your ship nearby, any sounds carried by the gas would still be too faint to hear.

Waiting for this sound series to continue!! Thanks for the explanation

Wouldnt you also hear engine exhausts as you pass by behind? They would be sending out a stream of particles. Also we dont know how the different types of shields would affect the microphone.

Thanks man .. as always great video

Beautiful explanation

Nice explanation, but don't forget to mention that in this case, the firing lasers from the ships, the non-explosive impacts should also be heard, because even If it's a smaller scale, the cannons will get hot and release particles. depending of the concept used for the laser itself like the heated-gas/plasma laser (since we can see it "travelling" to the destination and exploding instead of instant contact and burn) those will be releasing particles that can be capted by "space-microphones" and if it's emiting light that also means those beans can be emitting atoms/particles right?

thank you for this informational video!

This is a very interesting video, and I thank you for making it. I have one small question though. Would there not be a delay, albeit a little one, between seeing the explosion and then hearing it? The difference between the speed of sound and light being what it is. Yes, I realize the standard 340m/s doesn't apply here, but rather the "speed of explosion", but there would there still be a significant enough difference to perceive the delay?

thank you very much..... these videos are very helpful. Few more videos on sound please.

I like the detail that the ship avoided the letters in space

That's what I always thought but couldn't explain as well as you, the ships have their own air to carry the sound waves!

Very knowledge

I once read a paper about synthesising gunshot sounds (title was something along the lines of "procedural synthesis of gunshot sounds"). These simulated explosions sound similar to the anechoic waveforms described in the paper when I implemented the algorithms in PureData. Pretty-much just a click. You need to add reverberation to get something that sounds like what we typically think of as a gunshot sound. Seems explosions are similar.

Nice Star Wars ship modeld. I hope to see them in another video

wild! and thnakssssssssss

Thanks!! My 5 year old loves these videos.

Also, the other potential sound you might hear in a Star-Wars-space-battle-with-real-physics is a wind-buffeting-the-mic sound when thrust ports are aimed at the camera.

Also worthwhile to note is that 500 meters/second is 500 meters/second. The Falcon is about 35 meters long so unless the explosion has a much higher velocity (and it may or may not depending on what is going boom or simply escaping) you're going to hear these pops a second or so after the explosion.

Pretty nice explanation! So, is it mean that Atari space invaders game-kind always has correct sounds? Cool! hahaha

Thos explosions sounds like slapping slippers on tiles 😂, btw thank you for giving us Excellent knowledge.

you are amazing , you will grow soon👍

Manya! Interesting video, greetings from Perú 🎶

Oooh nice!

Neat!

Who saw the video of the Electron staging from inside the S1 could hear the sound of the S2's engine lighting up, even though it was already in hard vacuum. The engine exaust provided enough air to propagate sound from the engine to the mic on the S1.

Thank you so much for making this video. I've been getting frustrated for years trying to explain this to people.

You are most likely to not hear the sound, rather some small pressure on your spacesuit, which will be transferred to your ears by the air inside. It will be more like a thump or low freq. almost breath-like blow. If you are in a spececraft the sudden pressure will depend on speed (hopefully away) from the exploding object. If the exploding object has no inner pressure of gases, its explosion won't make any sound. A microphone around such exploding inner gases would most likely capture them as a low freq. fart or rather a guttural burp.

Oh my gosh, was that a Bellator-class Star Destroyer I saw around 2:50? That's fancy.

I always knew this answer but never told anyone or checked...but now i have been shown my own vision..nice

I guess the proper way of putting it would be "there are no sounds in a vacuum". So there are indeed no sounds in space when space is a vacuum. But if an explosion (or any other process) releases particles, that could indeed make a sound, since those particles are, evidently, not a vacuum.

I thought it would say pew pew, pew.

Good video and interesting stuff. A somewhat related question, the beams shot between the space ships, why do I see those? If there is no matter, how can I see a beam of light (assuming it is not directed at me)? If there is matter, wouldn't it also shoot out particles behaving like sound?

In your example, gas molecules hit the microphone membrane, but this is a purely theoretical idea. In reality, the respective molecules will first hit other surfaces, they will vibrate according to the type of explosion molecule, the molecule-surface incidence angle, the type of surface, the surface temperature, etc. Eventually the vibration of the cockpit's surface (and not the explosion molecules) will in turn generate vibrations of the gas molecules inside. This is the only thing we can possibly hear.

*I guessed all the theory correctly as soon as you show corrected StarWars sounds.*

More precisely: button click, humming of laser generator, very soft popping noise, and the most prominent sound would be that of the debris hitting the vital front energy shield. But the sound of the engine would make all these impossible to hear through the massive noise cancelling hearing protector you would most probably wear.

Some years ago (during my physics bachelors course) I had this discussion and pointed exactly to these arguments. Everyone but the teacher just ignored them. Now I'm hunting contact info of 30 or so former classmates just to send a link to this video!

Technically, "sound" is not an explosion or stream of particles that arrives from point A to point B but any actually transmitted sine wave that a gas carries from point A to point B. Much like a gravitational wave is NOT "gravity" travelling trough space but a distortion of space-time. Now as to the simulated noise in the animation: the density of gas traveling outwards from the point of the explosion would - assuming perfect vacuum void of any baryonic particles already in it - would decrease to exponentially and would look something like (density: length):sq root of cube. Nerds correct me if I'm wrong. The "sound wave" would then arrive at the "microphone" as extremely diffused stream of gas which would be by all practical means silent. How many dBA minus we're talking about here would be in the 1*^ - some big number. And would sound much less than like an explosion and more like a sudden onset of steady noise of a "wind/jet" which would decrease over time. And as far as movies/games go the most (imho) realistic noise of space combat comes from the latest Wolfenstein game where the protagonist fights nazis on the moon and just hears his own noises, muffled by the space suit. Or Cubric's famous movie: just no noise besides the protagonist himself.

Mind blown X 100000000

Bonus points for Zenith reference, instantly transported to getting slimed on a game show

Wouldnt there be a delay between the explosion and the Sound though following the Speed of Sound?

That's all well and good, but I think it's more likely that the reason the occupants of star wars space ships hear explosions is because a computer detects that there was an explosion and then plays a sound over the speaker system, and perhaps also does a bit of a vibration effect. Why? Because it would have a psychological effect on the crew which may aid in some way, similar to how vibration on a video game controller or haptics in your phone subtly enhance the experience of using those devices. For example, if the recipient of the sound is just walking through the corridors and can't see the space battle going on outside, hearing and feeling it may give them more situational awareness and thus motivate them to take action with a sense of urgency, if they might need to take cover because a hull breach may be imminent. If the recipient of the sound is actively engaged in the battle, i.e. operating a laser cannon or maneuvering the ship, creating a better sense of presence by piping in explosion sounds and vibrations may add to the realism of the moment and cause the recipient to fly better or fight better. Furthermore, if the sound effects are directional in nature-- here I'm thinking not just explosions but the sound of another ship passing at speed, for example, the spatial direction could give the operator subtle clues about the relative locations and velocities of enemy ships that are more natural to a human than seeing it on a screen or out the window, and thus enable the pilot to use his ears and to sense vibrations to track enemy vessels in the heat of battle. This could lessen the cognitive load of having to track absolutely everything using vision only. It wouldn't be a huge advantage, to be sure, but maybe doing this might give just enough of an edge in space combat such that the pilot prevails over his enemies and perhaps brings his highly trained crew and highly expensive spaceship home, so even if it provides an advantage 1% of the time it would be worth the investment overall at the fleet level because they would have to build less ships and train less crew on an ongoing basis. There might even be a recruiting effect because pilots would probably like flying ships that have cool explosion sounds during battles more than boring old ships that don't have them.

You should have added more of a delay between when you saw the explosion and when you hear the sound since it needs time to travel. Excellent explanation otherwise 👍🏻👍🏻

My guess of what explosions in space would sound like was correct but I didn't know, lol. But shouldn't the sound shift based on the material of your own ship? Like hitting a barrel with a water-hose will make a different sound based on the material, shape and content of the barrel.

2:05 - Are we sure those “lasers” are not plasma blasts or ion technobabble?

Now I need an explanation for the gravity in "Alien" movies, please

I think it push magnetic line instead pushing air wave...that why microphone can charge phone and control other electronic device

I think i get it. Rather than hearing the actual sound of the explosions what we would hear would be the shock wave. It is actually true that there is no sound in space but there are shock waves. I dont fully understand the difference but i know there is a distinction between the two. Otherwise, deflecting an incoming asteroid with a nuclear blast would be impossible. Now, I may have gotten something wrong here. Though i do have an understanding of physics, i am certainly no scientist.

Considering the blaster fire is super heated gas, if you were close enough to one of their bolts being fired. Could you hear it?

The background music gave me flashbacks to the Sicilian War bruh

Cody's Lab: One of the presumed SI units of UKposts. ;-)

I always thought about that possibility but never give the credit.

Cuz there's particles flying around. E.g. starwars space ships getting destroyed which is releasing sound cuz of the millions of Particles.

sound travels in space as electromagnetic pulses

Tie fighters are not pressurized ❤

Muito bom!

so millennium falcons like to fly between two floating space letters

I loved the content but according to you when the substance creates its own medium, it can generate sound, so can we hear the explosions that take place on the surface of the sun?

2: 06 they call that laser in star wars, but it probably isn't

As for the balloon..... Charle's Law 😅

I think it would sound like muffled vibrations like house of the dying sun

Isn't it true that the "speed of sound" is a function of temperature? Since absolute zero really doesn't exist in the known universe "sound" will still technically exist. Whether it's detectable with available technology is another story but sound in theory still exists. Is that a correct conclusion?

yeah but the sound would be not as consistent as if you were on earth, you'd likely hear very distorted sounds or just simply not hear anything because there is just not enough gas for sound to travel anywhere.

So, assuming that you could survive long enough to try, someone could hear you scream in space.

How do you take a balloon to outer space without it bursting on the way?

Why those explosion sounds have higher pitch in space than on Earth? On Earth, such big explosions have a lot more deeper sound (lower pitch) like BOOM! 💥🔥

...a balloon would expand and rupture before the pressure dropped to vacuum levels.

So, actually in this case, we are the ones that makes the sound?

Nolan Interstellar and Gravity are the only 2 movies reflect accurate physics

Did anyone else first think that was a microwave oven at the end instead of a TV?

I'm not going to read all the comments 'cause there are 80 of them but is there anywhere where anyone defines "space"? The way I see it is that if you define space as having NO particles in it then sound does not travel through space. If an enclosed gas explodes then sound still does not travel through space because space (as defined) no longer exists. The sound is traveling through something that is no longer "space". Have at me bro! I can take it.

72 is the answer to everything

Does this mean we would hear the sun explode

I think it may actually be cool if they used the physically accurate sound instead

I disagree. Air particles could travel through vacuum but they expands so wide apart the you'll barely hear it. Picture a bag of rice burst in the middle of a football field, by time it reaches the end of the field each grain of rice will be so far apart you could barely see it. So at close distance, yes there maybe sound, but in the dog fights I doubt a mic could pick it up.

Maybe it travel faster in space

you added the same sound to ANY explosion in the clip, no matter what distance to the camera it popped. thats misleading. you would only hear sound when you fly directly through the explosion

So if you fart in space... 🧐

How does a motherboard function ?

CAN YOU PLEASE PRODUCE A VIDEO EXPLAINING ABOUT THE SUITABLE FRAME / SECOND ( VIDEO GAME ) RAM, PROCESSOR, SLIDESHOW, FAST FORWARD, SLOW MOTION,... THANKS 🤔🤔

Technically speaking, you still cannot hear in a vacuum, since during that moment you are not in a vacuum, you are being surrounded by air charged with kinetic energy.

A way can’t make sound in vacuum not means there’s no sound can exist in vacuum or the sound can’t through the vacuum.

I don't think StarWars version space is an exact vacumm since you know.. Space Whales..

ni

In space no one can hear you scream

My balloon can't survive in vacuum no need to pop up 😂lol

In Star Wars, you would not be able to see the lasers

BS the force is why spaceships make pew pew noises

Sorry, but an expanding volume of gas is not a pressure wave. You are confusing particles travelling in one direction with a pressure wave travelling THROUGH a medium of particles. They are different things. There's no sound in space.

I think you're wrong. You'll have to travel within the area containing the particles, and even then, you don't know what you're picking up, if anything at all. Not to mention that your sound travels at the speed of light and always makes the same noise. I have no idea why you didn't record the last conversations of the crew of the exploding ship, as nothing should be in its way. But yes, you're very wrong. But not as wrong as the idiots who recorded jupiter or saturn, etc.