Shocking Circuits ⚡
What do we call the complete path that electricity goes through?
A circuit
Is a metal spoon a conductor or an insulator of electricity?
conductor
What is the scientific word for the fast back-and-forth movement that makes sound?
vibration
What is the scientific word for how high or low a sound is?
pitch
Can sound travel through a vacuum like space? Why?
no, there're no particles to vibrate
Which power source is much stronger and more dangerous: a battery or the mains?
Mains electricity
What does a yellow triangle symbol with a black lightning bolt mean?
Danger!
What happens to a sound the moment a vibration stops?
the sound stops
If something vibrates very fast, does it make a high pitch or a low pitch?
high pitch
Does sound travel fastest through solids, liquids, or gases?
solids
In a circuit, what happens to the bulbs if you add more batteries?
They get brighter
Why are electrical wires covered in plastic?
Plastic is an insulator that stops electricity from moving into you
What is the name of the unit used to measure the loudness (volume) of sound?
Decibel
To make a sound louder, do you need more energy or less energy?
more energy
What happens to a sound as you move further away from the source?
It gets fainter or quieter
If you build a circuit and the buzzer does not make a noise, there is a "fault." What scientific steps must you take to find exactly where the fault is?
You must set up a test circuit and check each component (battery, buzzer, bulb) and each wire one at a time to see which part is broken
Why is it safer for students to use batteries instead of mains electricity for school science investigations?
Batteries have a very low voltage, which is not strong enough to give you a dangerous electric shock, unlike the high-voltage mains.
We know 130 dB is the pain threshold for humans. At what decibel level do sounds cause permanent damage to your ears?
160 decibels (dB).
If you hit a drum with more energy, you create a "big vibration." Does this change the sound's pitch or its amplitude?
It changes the amplitude (making the volume louder), but the pitch remains the same.
Why can a whale's song be heard over 10,000 kilometres in the ocean, while an elephant's call only travels about 10 kilometres in the air?
Sound travels faster and further in water because water particles are packed closer together than air particles, allowing vibrations to pass more easily
Scientists sometimes model an electrical circuit using picture of a bridge and cars. In this model, what parts of the circuit does the bridge represents? what do the cars represent?
the bridge is a switch and the cars are electrons
If you see an electrical wire with cracked or damaged plastic, why is it dangerous to use?
Because the insulator (plastic) is broken. If you touch the exposed conductor (metal) inside, the electricity can flow into your body and give you a shock.
explain what exactly happens to air particles when we pluck a guitar string?
they vibrate and pass the vibration to each other, that makes the sound spread
On an oscillogram (wave picture), if two sounds have the same amplitude but different frequencies, how will they look and sound different?
They will have the same height (same loudness), but the one with the higher frequency will have waves squeezed closer together and will have a higher pitch.
Humans usually hear through their ears, but Dolphins (and sometimes famous musicians like Beethoven) use bone conduction. Explain how this works.
Sound vibrations travel through the bones of the skull (or the jaw in dolphins) directly to the inner ear