In this project, our team was tasked with designing three musical instruments that can play at least one scale of our choice. The only problem is, we had to make one of the instruments a percussion instrument, one of them as a wind instrument, and the last one as a string instrument.
Our first instrument is our chimes. This was our percussion instrument and the way they work is you hit one and it makes a noise, seems simple, right? Well the physics behind it is actually a lot more complicated. When you strike one of the chimes, it makes the metal pipe vibrate, which in turn produces a sound wave. The pitch that the chime creates actually changes based on a few different factors. The first one is the material. Every material has a different pitch when struck, or natural frequency. We found that metal typically rings louder and more clearly than other materials so we decided to build our chimes out of EMT pipe. The second factor is how large the material is. The larger the material is, the lower the frequency of the note that the material produces which then lowers the pitch of the note. Knowing this, we made sure that all of our EMT pipe was the same width so the only thing that would change between pipes is the length. We also made a wooden base to hold the pipes and a small mallet to strike the pipes with. The end result is pictured below.
Our first instrument is our chimes. This was our percussion instrument and the way they work is you hit one and it makes a noise, seems simple, right? Well the physics behind it is actually a lot more complicated. When you strike one of the chimes, it makes the metal pipe vibrate, which in turn produces a sound wave. The pitch that the chime creates actually changes based on a few different factors. The first one is the material. Every material has a different pitch when struck, or natural frequency. We found that metal typically rings louder and more clearly than other materials so we decided to build our chimes out of EMT pipe. The second factor is how large the material is. The larger the material is, the lower the frequency of the note that the material produces which then lowers the pitch of the note. Knowing this, we made sure that all of our EMT pipe was the same width so the only thing that would change between pipes is the length. We also made a wooden base to hold the pipes and a small mallet to strike the pipes with. The end result is pictured below.
Our second instrument is our string instrument. The way string instruments work is when you pluck a string, it makes the string vibrate and that vibration produces a sound, very similar to chimes. They are also very similar to chimes in the factors that change the pitch. The first factor is once again, the material used, it changes the pitch purely because of how well it vibrates. The second factor is the length of the string, manipulating this variable is actually how you play the instrument, when you press down on a string and then pluck, only the part below where you press down vibrates, changing the frequency. The final factor is tension, the tension of the string changes how quickly it can get back to the position the string was at before, which allows the string to vibrate faster. We built our string instrument out of wood and used a single string of fishing line for the string. By pressing down at certain points, the string length is artificially manipulated, changing the pitch. A lot of instruments also have an amplification box, this is a hole in the body of the instrument that amplifies the sound of the string. We have one of these on our instrument but sadly the string does not vibrate well enough to actually have the sound amplified. Our instrument is pictured below.
Our third and final instrument is our trombone. We built this instrument out of PVC pipe with a funnel for the bell. The way a wind instrument works is when a player buzzes their lips, this vibrates the air in the instrument and that air goes down the length of the instrument, slowly losing frequency and at the end, the bell amplifies the sound. A trombone specifically changes the length of the pipe by pushing the slide in or out. This changes the resulting pitch of the instrument. Our trombone can play a large variety of notes because of this concept. we built most of the instrument out of 1/2 inch PVC pipe but we built the slide casing out of 1 inch pipe. Our final instrument is pictured below.
Concepts:
Transverse wave: This is a wave that travels up and down or side to side compared the the direction that it is moving, these waves do not require a medium to travel. Some transverse waves are light, radio waves, and ultraviolet waves.
Longitudinal wave: These waves move by compressing and decompressing through a process called compression and rarefaction. These waves do require a medium to move. An example of a longitudinal wave is a sound wave.
Natural Frequency: This is the pitch that an object produces when struck. Every material has a different natural frequency.
Crest: This is the height of a transverse wave.
Trough: This is the lowest point in a transverse wave
Wavelength: This is the length from crest to crest of a transverse wave.
Frequency: This is the length of time between each new wave measured in hertz.
Amplitude: The distance from crest to equilibrium in a transverse wave.
Reflection:
This has been my favorite project of the year by far, from learning the way waves work, to actually building the instruments. I learned about how transverse and longitudinal waves work. I also leaned about how constructive and destructive interference works. I learned that I enjoy tuning musical instruments and I especially liked tuning the string instrument. I also learned that I enjoy playing instruments, overall a very fun project that I would be happy to repeat.
Transverse wave: This is a wave that travels up and down or side to side compared the the direction that it is moving, these waves do not require a medium to travel. Some transverse waves are light, radio waves, and ultraviolet waves.
Longitudinal wave: These waves move by compressing and decompressing through a process called compression and rarefaction. These waves do require a medium to move. An example of a longitudinal wave is a sound wave.
Natural Frequency: This is the pitch that an object produces when struck. Every material has a different natural frequency.
Crest: This is the height of a transverse wave.
Trough: This is the lowest point in a transverse wave
Wavelength: This is the length from crest to crest of a transverse wave.
Frequency: This is the length of time between each new wave measured in hertz.
Amplitude: The distance from crest to equilibrium in a transverse wave.
Reflection:
This has been my favorite project of the year by far, from learning the way waves work, to actually building the instruments. I learned about how transverse and longitudinal waves work. I also leaned about how constructive and destructive interference works. I learned that I enjoy tuning musical instruments and I especially liked tuning the string instrument. I also learned that I enjoy playing instruments, overall a very fun project that I would be happy to repeat.