Houses with carpet are much quieter than houses with tile or hardwood floors because of sound wave

absorption

Absorptivity of carpet is higher than absorptivity of tile/hardwood floors.

Explanation:

Houses with carpet are much quieter than houses with tile/hardwood floors because when sound waves are transmitted from any source and they come in contact with any surface they are either absorbed or reflected.

The material absorptivity constant can be used as a reference. The absorptivity constant for carpet is higher than that of tile/hardwood floors.

Hence we can say that carpet is a better absorber or poor reflector of incident sound waves than tile/hardwood floors.