Bonus Activities About Sound and Waves

What else can you learn about sound and waves?  Try out a few of these activities and take notes about what you learned.

Try out this online oscilloscope.  Use these questions to guide you.

1. Sounds that are a mix of pitches make messy waves. Can you find a sound that makes a simple wave? (Try whistling.)
2. What happens to the oscilloscope picture when you make a sound louder or softer?
3. What happens when you make a sound higher or lower?

What is the highest and lowest pitch that you can hear?

• The video starts with a tone so low you probably can't hear it. Keep listening.
• When you do you start hearing the hum? Notice when it gets so high you can't hear it anymore.
• While you're listening, watch the waves. They change with the pitch — from long wavelengths to short.

Video: Singing Roads

• The pitch of a sound — how high or low it is — depends on the vibration that made the sound. The quicker the vibration goes back and forth, the higher the sound.
• On this singing road, the vibrations of a car play a tune. Bumps in the road called rumble strips make the car vibrate.
• Which set of rumble strips plays the higher note?

Now Hear This! The sound designed to drive teenagers away.

• What can you learn by reading about this?

Nat Geo Kids:  The Science of Sound Playlist

• This is a list of 13 videos about sound.  Each one will play immediately after the last one.

How Quiet Can You Be?