Sound Waves (3/19 - 3/23)

https://goo.gl/UBjJ8T

Summary: 

     Waves are moving curve-like motions created from vibrations. There are two types of waves: mechanical waves and electromagnetic waves. Mechanical waves require a medium of matter to travel in, such as air, water or gas. These types of waves cannot occur in space due to the fact that space is a vacuum and contains little to no matter. Electromagnetic waves, however bypass this limitation and do not require a medium to pass through. Light waves, for example, can travel through space, air and water. Besides the wave types that exist, there is also an anatomy to each type of wave. A wavelength is the distance between each crest or trough (top wave or bottom wave). Frequency is the amount of times that wavelengths travel through a certain point in one second and is measured in Hertz (Hz). Amplitude is half the height of an entire wave, or half the distance between a crest to trough. The higher the amplitude, the more energy that a wave stores. Dampness is the energy output from a wave. The damper the wave, the less energy is stored inside of it as it moves. Finally, tension is the tightness of the wave. The more tense it is, the tighter the wave and the less it can move vertically. 

SP3 - Carrying out Investigations:

     This week I carried out investigations in order to understand the anatomy and parts of the wave and how they all come together to make distinct waves. During the lab, my team and I had a rope which resembled a wave. The first part of the lab was understanding how frequency works. In order to make the rope more 'frequent' when we made a wave with it, we figured that we had to make faster hand movements. From that, we concluded that frequency can be controlled based on the movement/vibration speed of the wave. The next part was amplitude. We saw that it wasn't necessarily based on the speed of the hand movement, but was based on the length of the hand movement,, so we we concluded that amplitude was based on the energy carried by the wave. Along with the process that helped us understand the material that we were given, we created annotated diagrams to further elaborate and explain our thinking of how each function of a wave worked. 

Vibrations (3/12 - 3/16)

https://goo.gl/xmRVgi

Summary: 

    A vibration is when an object moves back and forth in a fast and short manner. Vibrations are the source of sound that we hear. When an object vibrates, it moves the molecules in the medium that it is in, usually gas, water or solid. Those molecules push each other, causing a sort of domino effect, causing the medium to vibrate for a brief moment. For example, if you took a tuning fork and struck it, it would vibrate. Upon putting it next to your ear, you would hear a lingering sound from the vibration, due to the fact that the vibration is causing the air molecules around it to push each other, carrying sound which is eventually processed by your ear. Taking the same tuning fork, if you were to strike it again and place it in a cup of water, the water would vibrate, causing some droplets to spew out of the cup. Finally, if you were to put the vibrating tuning fork next to a solid, the solid would vibrate, but only for a short moment as the tuning fork would slow its vibration to a halt once contact is made between the two objects. 

SP3 - Carrying Out Investigations:

     This week I participated in an investigation with the people at my table to answer how sound worked. In order to accomplish this, we were given two tuning forks of different pitch, a cup, a ping pong ball and two pencils. Our first task was to hit the tuning fork with the pencil and observe the sound that it made. We noticed that the harder the hit, the louder the sound, though the pitch remained the same for each tuning fork. Then, we hit the tuning fork once more and placed it next to a ping pong ball that was attached to string. When the ball made contact with the fork, it swung backwards as a pendulum would. From that, we could conclude that vibrations affected its surroundings. To support that idea, we filled the cup that we were given with water, struck the tuning fork, and put it inside the cup of water. We saw that the water spewed out of the cup and elaborated on our conclusion, saying how when an object vibrates, the objects around the object move and push each other, creating sound. Furthermore, the harder the strike, the faster the vibration, which translated into louder and longer lasting sound.

Intro to Sound (3/5 - 3/9)

https://goo.gl/fXUokg

Summary:

     Sound is the vibration of air around a certain medium such as gas, liquid, solid, etc. When a sound is produced, it pushes the air forwards, creating something similar to the domino effect. Besides air, sound can also move in other mediums such as liquids or solids. It can actually move faster in these environments due to the fact that liquids and gases are more dense and can easily be pushed by sound. Think about it, which set of dominoes would be easier to knock over? Ones that are spread apart or ones that are more tightly compacted together? Sound can be observed through the ears of many organisms. Sound waves go through ears and are then compressed due to the tight space. The vibrations then hit the ear drum, where the sound is then processed by the brain. Hearing sound is important due to the fact that it allows for communication and awareness of surroundings.

SP2: Developing and Using Models:

     This week I started modeling instruments in order to understand how sound works. For the project, we were to build an instrument that had percussion, string and wind. During the week, we mainly focused on how wind works. In order to do so, we did a sound lab that focused on how sound differed based on the volume in a glass bottle and the different inputs of sound. My group and I discovered that higher pitches were produced by blowing into a full bottle while the opposite was shown to occur from hitting it. Subsequently, we learned that this was the case since when blowing into a bottle, the water allowed for less travel for the sound waves, making a higher pitch and the more water in a bottle, the slower the vibration upon hitting it. I applied this knowledge onto how wind works by changing the method of making the wind. To make the wind instrument component, I considered using a different type of material and perhaps varying volumes of liquids within.