Introduction to Sound

Some things you can hear when you close your eyes might be fans, people talking, music playing and cars going by. There are many more sounds you might be able to hear.

Ears give us our sense of hearing. Vibrations go into your ears and vibrate something called your eardrum.

Some things that vibrate include speakers, guitar strings and rubber bands.

Some instruments you may have heard before include drums, a piano, a guitar and a flute.

You can make sounds by talking, singing or playing an instrument.

Some really loud sounds you might hear include sirens, explosions or roars. Some quiet sounds you might hear include a whisper, a kitten purring or the wind blowing.

They can happen really fast, sometimes thousands of times each second.

We can make vibrations visible in many ways such as using a tuning fork and putting it in water. You can also feel your own throat while humming or putting paint inside a speaker. You can also film things vibrating with a special slow motion camera.

When your vocal cords vibrate, they make sound. Anytime you speak, your vocal cords are vibrating. The shape of your tongue and mouth also help you make different sounds.

Different strings have different thicknesses. This effects how fast the string vibrates which changes the sound.

They vibrate differently because they are made of different materials. Different sized drums can also make different sounds depending on how fast they vibrate.

The speaker makes the air around it vibrate. When a loud sound moves through the air it makes other objects near it vibrate, too.