Question

How does the sound produced by a vibrating object in a medium reach your ears?

Answer 1

To understand this let us consider the following example.

1. When a person speaks, the air closer to his mouth is pushed in the direction of the sound.
2. As a result of it, the molecules in this layer of air get disturbed and start vibrating about their mean positions.
3. These vibrating molecules then disturb the adjacent molecules, and the process continues until the molecules in the air nearest to the listener's ear start vibrating.
4. These vibrating molecules then cause vibrations in the diaphragm of the listener's ear.
5. The vibrating diaphragm of the ear sends signals to the brain.
6. Thus, the disturbance (the vibratory motion of the molecules in the air) travels from the source of sound to the listener's ear and not the air.

So, that is how a sound produced by a vibrating object in a medium reaches to our ears.