Some notes from tutoring today,
His class is studying sound waves right now.
We looked at questions related to a lab. One question had to do with the accuracy of finding the speed of sound using either standing waves in a tube or an echo. We reviewed the equation for velocity and how to graph it which was relevant for two of the problems.
Fundamentally, sound waves are expansions and compressions of air or another medium. We often graph them like sine waves, but those waves represent density.
The sounds of instruments are really combinations of different levels of frequencies. In a similar way, the tone of voices is made of a combination of frequencies.
Flutes and clarinets change the tube length by covering or uncovering holes in the tube.
Even though clarinets and flutes are about the same length, the flute functions like an open-open tube and the clarinet functions like a closed-open tube.
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