Why does a room echo when its empty

Question: Why does a room echo when its empty
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:

The sounds you hear are wave-like movements of the air!. The information contained in those waves are interpreted by your biology in magical ways that can be mostly explained by science but not important here!.

So, if we look at sounds as waves moving through the air!.!.!.an Echo is caused when one of those waves hits something and gets reflected back!. The nerdy way to put this is:

"An echo can be explained as a wave that has been reflected by a discontinuity in the propagation medium, and returns with sufficient magnitude and delay to be perceived!." The prorogation medium here would be "air"!.

So the reason that empty rooms have so many echoes (actually the audiophiles would call it "reverberation" because to be an echo is has to have a longer delay), is because the waves bounce off all the hard surfaces!. If the room were carpted, that would reduce the effect because "soft" or bumpy surfaces "absorb" or trap the waves!.

Hard flat surfaces like walls and wood floors and ceilings reflect sound waves very well and there is little absorption, leading to the echoey sound!. That's why recording studios, fancy auditoriums, etc!. will have carpets and/or strange shapes (like egg cartons for example) on the walls, to reduce reverberation!.
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if its empty how do you know it echos !?!? Www@QuestionHome@Com

Um!.!.!.ditto!. Www@QuestionHome@Com