Sound waves cannot travel through a

copper wire placed in air

silver slab placed in air

glass prism placed in water

wooden hollow pipe placed in vacuum

Answer is Right!

Answer is Wrong!

This question was previously asked in

UPSC CDS-1 – 2018

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Sound waves are mechanical waves, meaning they require a medium to propagate. They travel through the vibrations of particles in solids, liquids, and gases. A vacuum is a space essentially devoid of matter. Therefore, sound waves cannot travel through a vacuum because there are no particles to transmit the vibrations. A wooden hollow pipe placed in vacuum includes a region (the vacuum surrounding and possibly inside the pipe) through which sound cannot travel.

– Sound propagation requires a material medium (solid, liquid, or gas).
– Sound travels at different speeds in different media (typically fastest in solids, slower in liquids, and slowest in gases).
– Vacuum has negligible matter, so it cannot support the propagation of mechanical waves like sound.

Options A, B, and C describe scenarios where sound can travel through solid materials (copper wire, silver slab, glass prism) and/or gaseous air or liquid water. In a vacuum, even if a solid object like a wooden pipe is present, sound cannot travel *through* the vacuum space itself. If sound were generated within the solid pipe, it could travel through the pipe material, but it would not propagate outward into the vacuum. The question asks where sound cannot travel *through*, and the presence of vacuum prevents propagation across that space.

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