What is the difference between electromagnetic and sound waves

Yes, I realize that EM waves are much faster, do not need to travel through molecules and all the schoolbook answers.

But-- at their core nature, what is the actual difference?

I get that EM waves are based on magnetism of electric waves; but I would like a relatable answer, not just a fact list of the specs.


I suppose I am asking how each wave is formed.

Sound waves are waves of motion within their medium. here is an example:
you and three friends are stading in a row. you shove one friend, who falls over into his friend, who in turn knocks over the next person. in this manner, motion is transferred between one particle and a neighboring particle. (note this example is extremely crude and you shouldn't cite it.) another example: a speaker cone moves back and forth, causing the air in front of it to move back and forth along with it, which in turn affects air in front of it, and thus the sound wave propagates forward through the air.

Electromagnetic waves, however, do not need any medium to propagate. it is just basically raw energy. this raw energy can be viewed as packets, or photons, which act sort of like particles, or it can be viewed as waves which act without a medium. you should know the whole wave/particle duality thing, but aside from that, em radiation is a pretty nebulous concept. it helps if you just think of it as photons moving through space like particles, but also remember that they sometimes behave as waves. (i know, confusing, right?)

EM radiation is basically the universe's way of conserving energy when it has no other option. when an electron drops to a lower energy state, the energy lost has to go somewhere so it ends up as a photon. not really any reason other than to conserve energy.

Sound wave is formed from vibration of object and also needs medium to travel. It actually travels by transmitting the vibration from one layer to another.