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Q&A

Does listening with an ear to the ground actually work?

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In movies, sometimes the character will put an ear to the ground and then hear people moving a long ways away example.

Does this actually work in the wild at all or is it just insufficient for anything short of a horde of orcs herd of buffalo?

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1 answer

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If there is a herd of buffalo you will hear them sooner by listening at the ground, then in the air.

BUT only if there is lot of them, making a large impact. A single animal or even a few is unlikely to have enough energy to transfer sound any distance in the earth.

In a solid, the particles are even closer together and linked by chemical bonds so the wave travels even faster than it does in either liquid or air, but you need quite a lot of energy to start the wave at the beginning. source (sciencelearn.org)

Related sister site question Do trackers hold their ears to the ground?

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