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While we are lying on the bed and there is a phone placed somewhere on the bed, when the phone vibrates we can feel the vibration all over the bed,

but in the scenario when we are lying on the floor and our phone starts vibrating we couldn't feel the vibration as same as we feel on the bed.

Why does it happen

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2 Answers 2

I tried it actually on my bed, a wood floor, a wood table, and a tiled floor. On the tiled floor, I didn't feel the vibration, on the rest it was clear. I believe the reason for the difference is the difference in the elasticity of the materials. For materials with high elasticity, the wave is transmitted more than reflected, on the other hand, for materials with low elasticity, the wave is reflected more than transmitted.

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First: Because some waves under a certain frequency in a certain material are eliminated / cannot propagate. Try with a higher frequency and see if it travels better.

Second: The material surface needs to be stretched enough with each pulse to draw enough power from phone-vibration so the phonons will have more and more amplitude. Ground:does not stretch. Bed surface: streches.

Third: you may not have put your ear to ground properly. Have you?

Fourth: Your body can not be coupled with the ground but can couple with bed-vibrations in terms of vibration. Because your body's natural-vibration-frequency is not equal to ground materials' but is equal to bed.

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bull and buzzwords. –  user2963 Oct 1 '12 at 22:08

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