Vibrations & Sound Basics
What causes sound to be produced?
Sound is produced by vibrations.
Which word describes how loud or quiet a sound is: pitch or volume?
Volume
Does pitch describe how high/low or loud/quiet a sound is?
How high or low a sound is
What does the x-axis show on a sound graph?
Time
What happens when you lightly tap a table?
The table vibrates a little and makes a soft sound.
True or False: All sounds come from vibrations.
True
What part of a wave (on a graph) shows amplitude?
The height of the wave (distance from rest position to peak or valley)
Which sound has a higher pitch: slow vibrations or fast vibrations?
Answer: Fast vibrations
What does the height of the wave tell you about the sound?
Loudness / amplitude
Why does hitting an object harder usually make a louder sound?
Hitting harder adds more energy, causing larger vibrations and louder sound.
Name one object in the classroom that can vibrate to make sound.
Any vibrating object (examples: ruler, desk, speaker, vocal cords, string).
If a wave has taller peaks and deeper valleys, is the sound louder or quieter?
Louder
What happens to pitch when frequency increases?
Answer: Pitch increases as frequency increases.
What does it mean if waves are closer together on a graph?
The sound has a higher frequency (higher pitch).
Why do animals like bats or dolphins use very high-pitched sounds?
High-pitched sounds travel as waves that reflect well from objects, helping animals locate things (echolocation).
Explain what happens to vibrations when more energy is added to an object.
When more energy is added, vibrations get bigger/stronger (louder).
Two sounds have the same frequency but different amplitudes. How will they sound different?
Same pitch.
Different volumes (loud and quiet)
Two waves have the same amplitude but different frequencies. What is different about the sounds?
They will have the same loudness but different pitches.
If two graphs have the same wave spacing but different heights, what is different about the sound?
The volume/amplitude is different, but pitch/frequency is the same.
How are vibrations and waves connected when sound travels through air?
Vibrations create waves, and the waves carry sound energy through the air (medium).
Why can sound stop even though the object is still there? Use the word energy.
Sound stops because the energy runs out or is transferred away, so vibrations stop.
Explain how hitting a drum in the same spot softly vs. hitting it hard changes the amplitude of the vibrations.
Hitting the drum harder adds more energy, which creates larger vibrations and greater amplitude (sou Louder).
Explain why a whistle sounds higher than a bass drum using the word frequency.
A whistle vibrates faster (higher frequency) than a bass drum, which makes its pitch higher.
Describe how you could tell from a graph which sound is loud AND high-pitched.
A loud and high-pitched sound would have tall waves (high amplitude) and many waves close together (high frequency).
Using amplitude and frequency, explain the difference between a quiet, low-pitched sound and a loud, high-pitched sound.
A quiet, low-pitched sound has small vibrations (low amplitude) and slow vibrations (low frequency).
A loud, high-pitched sound has big vibrations (high amplitude) and fast vibrations (high frequency).