Tag Archives: sound

Students will use three simple toy instruments to explore fundamentals of sound and frequency in this inquiry exercise. Boomwhackers: Students will share a number of colored plastic tubes of various lengths.

The Doppler Effect occurs when an observer hears a sound from a moving source. If the sound source is moving toward the observer, the perceived frequency will be higher than the actual sound frequency. If the source is moving away from the observer, the perceived frequency will be lower.

Purpose
In this activity, students will hear a dramatic effect of the interference of sound.
Discussion
Interference is a behavior common to all waves. With water waves we see it in regions of calm where overlapping crests and troughs coincide. We see the effects of interference in the colors of soap bubbles and other thin films where reflection [...]

Purpose
In this activity, students will observe and explore the oscillation of a tuning fork.
Discussion
The tines of a tuning fork oscillate at a very precise frequency. That’s why musicians use them to tune instruments. In this activity, you will investigate their motion with a special illumination system— a stroboscope.
Required Equipment
Low-frequency tuning forks (lower frequency forks work [...]

Good Vibrations An Exploration of Vibration, Sound, and Music
A wave is a disturbance that transports energy from one place to another without the transfer of matter. After a wave passes through a medium, there are no residual effects; the medium remains unchanged. For example, if you throw a stone in a pond, a circular wave [...]

We will demonstrate how sound waves are produced and reveal how they may be recorded and reproduced. Among the activities below are two that introduce students to analog sound recording. Growing up in the era of digital recording, most students are amazed to learn that sound can be recorded on an old fashioned record and reproduced with nothing more than a needle and a cardboard cone.