What do sound waves look like?

Sound waves are longitudinal waves of sound formed as it occurs. They cannot be seen with the naked eye, but they can be represented on a graph. There, sound waves are displayed as a series of vertical lines.

The lines can be close together or far apart depending on the intensity of the sound. Each tone or frequency of the sound wave appears as a line on the graph, and the distance between the lines indicates the frequency of the sound. Sound waves also have wavelengths and amplitudes that are seen on graphical representations of the waves. True, invisible sound waves can move through air, water and many other materials, but they do not move through a vacuum.