Sounds in space, how do you feel about it?

[Marcus15]

One thing to recall, when desiring dramatic effect, is that while you couldn't hear leaser blasts or whatever in space, if you were in the ship firing the weapon, or being hit by it, there may well be an accompanying sound or vibration. I don't imagine lasers would be very noisy, but one could perhaps describe a hum or a shudder in the deck or something?

I thing a more irritating scifi screen convention is the spaceships flying around like airplanes thing. That's one of the things that originally got me interested in Babylon-5; they actually attempted to show something like real physics at work.

I totally agree and if you've ever tried to play the B5 "I have found her" game you'll see that it's damned hard to dogfight in space!

 

[Anthony G Williams]

Now, say that you managed to get your ship in the 'Pillars of Creation', which are several light years across and holds newly born stars. Would such a thing as asteroids crashing/bashing each other, and the solar wind be audible to the inside of a spaceship.

More information would be needed to provide anything more than a blind guess in answer to that, but if I had to guess I would say "no".

 

[ushumgal]

Now, say that you managed to get your ship in the 'Pillars of Creation', which are several light years across and holds newly born stars. Would such a thing as asteroids crashing/bashing each other, and the solar wind be audible to the inside of a spaceship.

Unless your ears were *phenomenally* sensitive, no. I would imagine that even the sound of your crewmate's heartbeats a couple decks away would be louder.

You hear things on earth because something causes a sound wave, which is propagated by vibrating air molecules. In the near-vacuum of space, the molecules are so far apart that they really don't have much chance to bump into the next molecule or atom and make it vibrate too. I'm sure there are indeed areas where the gas density is high enough for sounds to be audible to a human ear, but probably only in areas where stars or planets are actively forming...and *very* close to them.

As for nebulae, they look like nice clouds of gas, true, but the only reason we can see them is that we are looking through many AU or even lightyears of gas...and even then, they usually look tolerably transparent. So while the density of gas may be considerably higher than surrounding space, it's still pretty much vacuum as far as anything human is concerned (hearing, breathing, etc.).

 

[TheEndIsNigh]

Whoa there Ush. One mans heartbeat is another womans timpani section. Sound is sound. If it's there it's there. That tree does make a sound in the forest even if no one is there to hear it.

And lets suppose the noise was a nuclear bomb going of I suspect you might catch a hint or two that something was banging on the wall.

 

[Archus]

Hmm, in response to the OP, I think this is a toughie.

What I have found what makes writing good is the connection to our everyday experience - what we know is natural around us. Even if it is in the most bizarre and artificial location, in a scary situation, you would want the people to be scared.

But a lot of the phenomenon in science is either not widely known (like sound in space, or particle/wave duality) or it is counter intuitive to our thinking (like quantum tunneling).

Sound in space cannot happen. Sound, is what is known as a longitudinal wave. This means the wave propagates in the same direction it moves, unlike a light wave, which moves at right angles to its direction of motion (which is the common wave pattern we all know and love). Sound requires a medium, or substance, to travel through. It can travel through air, water, glass, metal if you whack it hard enough (think a tuning fork), and other materials. But when there is no material, sound cannot propagate.

So in fiction, science or otherwise, if you have space, you cannot have sound. Or at least, outside of the environment you're in (such as a spaceship, station or planet). Therefore you can actually avoid that entirely. You don't need to say anything about the sound in space (or more specifically, its lack thereof). The sounds of battle are one thing, but the representation of chaos on a battlefield is quite another. Sound is but one element. Basically, deaf people are still soiling themselves on the battlefield, the same as everyone else.

So you can build up tension, action and drama in different ways. More often than not, through your characters.

Hope that helps.

 

[ctg]

Oh man, this is getting funny. People are so negative on thinking out from the box, so let me put it this way. You are falling from the edge of the space to a planet (like Earth), in what point you start hearing wind rushing past your ears? How much of atmosphere you need?

 

[AE35Unit]

Oh man, this is getting funny. People are so negative on thinking out from the box, so let me put it this way. You are falling from the edge of the space to a planet (like Earth), in what point you start hearing wind rushing past your ears? How much of atmosphere you need?

Well in earth's case about 12 miles,cos thats how far the earth's atmosphere extends into space. Beyond that nada,zilch. But of course you'd be well dead before then!

 

[Dave]

Well in earth's case about 12 miles,cos thats how far the earth's atmosphere extends into space. Beyond that nada,zilch. But of course you'd be well dead before then!

And you probably wouldn't have any ears left!

 

[ctg]

I love your answer, and yea, I guess without a spacesuit you would be dead. YouTube - First Man in Space - Skydiving From The Edge Of The World Yet some crazy people have flown to the edge of the space and jumped off. They were wearing spacesuits and carrying oxygen bottles among their gear. Guess the only noise they could hear was the vibrations. Yet the atmosphere extends up to the 100 km or 62 miles. Atmosphere - Layers - Advanced

 

[Zubi-Ondo]

Sorry to say CTG, but without a spacesuit you would be dead by the time you started hearing stuff. Now, If you had a spacesuit you might start hearing it around 25 KM up

From Wiki (I know some folks here mistrust Wiki):

"Were atmospheric density to remain constant with height the atmosphere would terminate abruptly at 7.81 km (25,600 ft). Instead it decreases with height, dropping by 50% at an altitude of about 5.6 km (18,000 ft). For comparison: the highest mountain, Mount Everest, is higher, at 8.8 km, which is why it is so difficult to climb without supplemental oxygen. This pressure drop is approximately exponential, so that pressure decreases by approximately half every 5.6 km (whence about 50% of the total atmospheric mass is within the lowest 5.6 km) and by 1/e = .368 every 7.64 km, the average scale height of Earth's atmosphere below 70 km. However, because of changes in temperature, average molecular weight, and gravity throughout the atmospheric column, the dependence of atmospheric pressure on altitude is modeled by separate equations for each of the layers listed above."

But I get your point about out of the box thinking, besides, this is fiction we are talking about right?

- Z.

 

[ctg]

Sorry to say CTG, but without a spacesuit you would be dead by the time you started hearing stuff. Now, If you had a spacesuit you might start hearing it around 25 KM up

Unless you are Super Man, and answer to your question, it is speculation at this point. I haven't written a man falling from the edge of the space or travelling in Pillars of Creation to witness birth of the suns. Just wanted to see how rooted some of things are to the people (as where they start to put up references and so on).

 

[AE35Unit]

Well you see's i'm very much a hard sf fan and tend to think factual,whereas others are more into fantasy and so think more speculatively. Horses for courses,i like both kinds of fiction but if i were writing it i'd emulate my hero Clarke. We're all different yet all the same.

 

[ctg]

Well you see's i'm very much a hard sf fan and tend to think factual,whereas others are more into fantasy and so think more speculatively. Horses for courses,i like both kinds of fiction but if i were writing it i'd emulate my hero Clarke. We're all different yet all the same.

Of course everyone does as they see it fitting in their story. As it many times has been said, SF is full of things that many people consider impossible. Yet it's fun to speculate what's what. There was a time when people thought that Earth was centre of the universe (well there are still people who believe in that).

 

[AE35Unit]

what,eh,you mean it isn't?!?

 

[TheEndIsNigh]

Oh man, this is getting funny. People are so negative on thinking out from the box, so let me put it this way. You are falling from the edge of the space to a planet (like Earth), in what point you start hearing wind rushing past your ears? How much of atmosphere you need?

About the same time as you hear the 'whale song' at the side of you but you should be OK.

Your petals will act like a parachute.

 

[Troo]

Well you see's i'm very much a hard sf fan and tend to think factual,whereas others are more into fantasy and so think more speculatively. Horses for courses,i like both kinds of fiction but if i were writing it i'd emulate my hero Clarke. We're all different yet all the same.

Hear hear! (See, I even groan at my own puns).