The

speed of sound The speed of sound is the distance travelled per unit of time by a sound wave as it propagates through an elasticity (solid mechanics), elastic medium. More simply, the speed of sound is how fast vibrations travel. At , the speed of sound in a ...

in any

chemical element A chemical element is a chemical substance whose atoms all have the same number of protons. The number of protons is called the atomic number of that element. For example, oxygen has an atomic number of 8: each oxygen atom has 8 protons in its ...

in the fluid phase has one temperature-dependent value. In the

solid phase In the physical sciences, a phase is a region of material that is chemically uniform, physically distinct, and (often) mechanically separable. In a system consisting of ice and water in a glass jar, the ice cubes are one phase, the water is a ...

, different types of sound wave may be propagated, each with its own speed: among these types of wave are longitudinal (as in fluids), transversal, and (along a surface or plate) extensional.

Speed of sound, solid phase

Speed of sound, fluid phases

Notes

* Ref. CRC: Values are "at room temperature" unless noted, and "for normal atmospheric pressure" ("at 1 atm" for gases). * Ref. WEL: Values refer to "where possible". Midpoint values are substituted if ranges were given in their original reference. Not specified further, it is assumed from the values that all (except fluids) are for the speed of sound in a thin rod.

References

{{reflist

Sources

WEL

As quoted at http://www.webelements.com/ from this source: * G.V. Samsonov (Ed.) in ''Handbook of the physicochemical properties of the elements'', IFI-Plenum, New York, USA, 1968.

CRC

As quoted from various sources in an online version of: * David R. Lide (ed), ''CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, 84th Edition''. CRC Press. Boca Raton, Florida, 2003; Section 14, Geophysics, Astronomy, and Acoustics; Speed of Sound in Various Media

CR2

As quoted from this source in an online version of: David R. Lide (ed), ''CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, 84th Edition''. CRC Press. Boca Raton, Florida, 2003; Section 6, Fluid Properties; Thermal Properties of Mercury * Vukalovich, M. P., et al., ''Thermophysical Properties of Mercury'', Moscow Standard Press, 1971.

APIH

Dwight E. Gray (ed), ''American Institute of Physics Handbook''. McGraw-Hill. Boca Raton, Florida, New York, 1957.

Other

* 88RAB: V.A. Rabinovich, et al. ''Thermophysical Properties of Neon, Argon, Krypton and Xenon''. Selover (Eng. ed.) Hemisphere, Washington DC, 1988. * Zuckerwar: A. J. Zuckerwar, ''Handbook of the Speed of Sound in Real Gases''. Academic Press, 2002. Properties of chemical elements Chemical element data pages Sound