• Question: `can you play drums in space

    Asked by gavinkarrem to Arlene, Colin, David, Eugene, Paul on 20 Nov 2012. This question was also asked by leejoradan.
    • Photo: David McKeown

      David McKeown answered on 20 Nov 2012:

      You could play them, but you wouldn’t be able to hear them. This is because space is a vacuum and sound can’t travel through a vacuum. There is nothing to carry the changes in pressure (which is what sound is) from the drum to your ear.

    • Photo: Paul Higgins

      Paul Higgins answered on 21 Nov 2012:

      And when you play drums in space you might only get to hit them once. Newton says every action has an equal and opposite reaction, so if you hit a big drum in 0 gravity, you and the drum will fly off in opposite directions.

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