The Challenge: Make musical instruments |
Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 |
How is sound produced?
For sound to occur
you need a vibrating
source and a medium,
and to detect it, you need a receiver.
There
are many natural vibrating sources vocal cords, stretched strings, reeds
but to create vibration there must be a certain amount of surface
tension in the vibrating body.
To reach
the receiver, the vibrations need a medium
of transmission such as air
or water.
Vibrations
from the sound source disturb molecules in the medium. The molecules move
at the same rate as the sound source. As the vibration travels through
the medium each molecule hits another and returns to its original position.
Regions of the medium become alternately more
dense and less
dense. The variation in pressure in the medium is sensed by a receiver
such as the human
ear or recording device and is called a sound
wave.
 
Flow of longitudinal
sound waves
What makes some sounds musical? 
|