Sound Waves

Sound waves are around us all the time revolving in the everyday life of humans. Sound
waves are created by the vibrations of an object. They are present because of the variations of
pressure in mediums of air. After a certain object vibrates it causes the air surrounding it to
vibrate. The vibrations in the air causes the human eardrum to vibrate which our brain interprets
as sound. When an object vibrates it moves in a single direction and compresses the air in front
if it, however if the vibrating object moves in the opposite direction the pressure in the air is
reduced so an expansion or rarefaction occurs. One compression and rarefaction makes a
longitudinal wave, which is a wave which has particles that travel parallel to the energy transfer
of the wave. When vibrating air molecules move back and forth parallel to the direction of the
wave's movement, molecules receive energy near the source and pass the energy to adjacent
molecules farther from the source. An instrument is a perfect object in the real world scenario
that has many characteristics that tell us about sound. Pitch of a note is determined by the
frequency of the tone that the ear receives. Higher notes vibrate more times than a lower notes
thus have a higher pitch. For example, in my model of a xylophone the instrument produces
sound when a human hits the metal rods in different ways, softer taps produce a softer pitch
where as a harder tap produces a higher pitch. The metal rods are placed on a rubber band so
when they are hit upon the rubber bands, the bands cause the metal rod to vibrate and resonate
which creates the sound that we hear. There are different mallets to hit the metal rods as well to
create different pitches. Increasing the tension of the rubber band can also give you higher
pitched notes because it causes the metal rod to vibrate more often where as lower tension
rubber band gives you lower pitched notes because of fewer vibrations that the metal rod goes
through. In the case of a xylophone it creates different notes because of the different lengths of
metal rods that are placed horizontally across the frame with the lower sounding bars placed on
the left. Different lengths of metal create different amounts of vibrations which cause different

pitches. The complex instruments we see are built of the basic principles of sound that create
different pitches and when all the pitches of all the instruments are put together we have great
music.

Work Cited
"Creating Sound Waves." By Ron Kurtus. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Apr. 2015. <http://www.school-forchampions.com/science/sound_creation.htm#.VSCuC_nF_54>.

"How Sound Waves Work." Sound Waves. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Apr. 2015.
<http://www.mediacollege.com/audio/01/sound-waves.html>.
"How Are Sound Waves Created?" How Are Sound Waves Created? N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Apr.
2015. <http://www.cliffsnotes.com/cliffsnotes/sciences/how-are-sound-waves-created>.
"Percussion." Instruments of the Orchestra -. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Apr. 2015.
<https://www.orsymphony.org/edu/instruments/popups/percussion.html>.