Riccardo's Science Blog

Summary : The relationship between frequency and pitch is that frequency influences pitch. If there is a low frequency, there will be a low pitch. A wave changes with a change in the pitch because the higher the pitch the shorter the wavelength. The appearance of the wave changes with a change in the volume because the louder the sound, the larger the amplitude. When you play higher notes, the waves are closer together. Yet, when you play louder, the waves are taller. Backward-Looking: How much did you know about the subject before we started? Before we started this unit on musical waves I knew next to nothing about how musical instruments worked. I knew you could tune them and amplify them but I didn't know that vibrations created sound and how these vibrations were made. Another thing I didn't know about this subject before we started was the difficulty of construction for some instruments and how much precision goes into making musical instruments. Inward-Looking: What...

Summary: The vibration of some device, such as a wire, drum, or reed, creates musical sounds. As well as moving air can be made to vibrate at certain frequencies. All of the devices involve a vibration of some source to create a musical sound. When you pluck or tap a wire of some sort, the vibration creates compression waves in the air, resulting in sound. When you strike the head of the drum, it causes it to vibrate and make a sound. In reality, the head of a drum is like a string in two-dimensions. You can also blow on things to create sounds. By blowing through or across a chamber of air you can create sound vibrations. The best example of this is whistling. You can also tune musical instruments to your desired pitch. By adjusting the tension of the wire, the frequency can be changed slightly until it is exactly at some set pitch. SP2 - Using Models: I created a model this week when my group and I started to create our musical instrument. We created a bass flute out of PVC p...