Sound A sound wave is a pressure disturbance which travels through a medium by means of particle interaction. As one particle becomes disturbed, it exerts a force on the next adjacent particle, thus disturbing that particle from rest and transporting the energy through the medium. Like any wave, the speed of a sound wave refers to how fast the disturbance is passed from particle to particle. While frequency refers to the number of vibrations which an individual particle makes per unit of time, speed refers to the distance which the disturbance travels per unit of time. The faster which a sound wave travels, the more distance it will cover in the same period of time.
Faster waves cover more distance in the same period of time.
The speed of any wave depends upon the properties of the medium through which the wave is traveling. Typically there are two essential types of properties which effect wave speed - inertial properties and elastic properties. The density of a medium is an example of an inertial property . Elastic properties are those properties related to the tendency of a material to either maintain its shape and not deform whenever a force or stress is applied to it. Steel is a rigid material with a high elasticity.