Our Task
In this project we were given the task of building musical instruments that could play a song that we made. The instruments had to play different notes. You can get different notes out of the instruments by using a different wave length, frequency, amplitude and other variables of the sound waves to get a different sound. We had to find out how to make these notes and how to produce them on the instruments. We had to make three types of instruments, they were: Chimes, strings, and a wind instrument.
The Project
For our project, we made the three necessary instruments and drums to go with the other instruments. Sage made the drums, Jovais made the flute, Tyler made the guitar, and I made the chimes. All of our instruments are pictured below.
Reflection
Overall, I really enjoyed this project and I learned a lot about sounds and how they are emitted. I think that it was very interesting learning the material that we learned during this project. During the project, we had some hard times and good times, as we always do. One hard time happened when I didn't have the chimes elevated. Therefore, the sound was weakened and very dull. I was confused why but I soon fixed that by hanging them up. Another hard time was when I was trying to fix the first problem. I kept trying to elevate the chimes but they kept falling down. I tried about 4 different methods until we tried pipe cleaners which worked good. One peak was when I helped Tyler make the guitar and it sounded good. Another peak was figuring out the lengths and measurements of my chimes, that seemed to go very smoothly for me. In all, I found this project very enjoyable.
Physics Concepts
Frequency: How many waves pass a certain point in a certain unit of time.
Period: The amount of time between waves/vibrations. The period is inverse to the frequency.
Wavelength: The length of a wave from one point on the wave to the corresponding point on the next wave.
Wave Speed: The velocity of a wave.
Amplitude: Displacement from equilibrium to crest. This measures the height of the wave.
Longitudinal Wave: A wave that compresses and rarefies as it travels. Sound waves are longitudinal waves. This wave require a medium to travel through.