Sound waves require a medium/substance to transmit through, for example, sound waves cannot travel through the vacuum of space . The medium, water or air, itself does not move in bulk with the wave . The medium's particles carry kinetic energy from one point to another . This is when the wave transmits through its medium, the particles simply vibrate as the wave passes through. The vibrations carry the energy from one particle to the next. This means that the sound wave is carried through the medium.
*Note: Sound waves need particles to travel but light does not.
sound travels as energy, unlike light.. the waves transmit energy by changing the motion of particles. The particles are moving in the same direction as the wave.
