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Sound
| Downloads | Signal generator - free from cognaxon |
Excellent for displaying wave nature of sound, Interference of sound, Beats etc. |
5 Star |
|
Frequency analyser - Audacity |
Audacity is a world-leader in this area and is also free. Well worth taking the time to work it out. | 5 Star | ||
How about one of those infamous mosquito ringtones? |
So teachers can't hear when it goes off. |
4 Star |
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| General | Introduction to many of the topics in Sound |
Includes some very cool slo-mo video clips. Youtube. 9 minutes. |
4 Star |
|
| How sound travels to the ear | Very nice animation from absorblearning.com | 4 Star | ||
| Typical sound frequencies - can you label the missing parts? | From absorblearning.com | |||
Excellent Sound Simulation Applets |
Play with the different tabs for an introduction to various concepts in Sound |
5 Star |
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| Interference | Soundwaves: diagram of constructive and destructive interference |
Simple diagrams |
3 Star |
|
Interference of Sound Waves, using PC as signal generator |
Works very well on a laptop or with the school pc – remember to block one ear. |
5 Star | ||
| Animation of what's happening using a microphone to detect the sound. | From absorblearning.com | 3 Star | ||
Animation of what happens when you rotate a tuning fork |
Tuning Fork nodes and antinodes [animation] |
3 Star |
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Beats |
What happens when you add too waves which are just a little different? |
4 Star |
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| Resonance | Tacoma Narrows Bridge disaster |
Youtube. 6 minutes. |
5 Star |
|
Make your own tacoma bridge |
All you need is a suspension bridge and a few colleagues - Youtube. 30 seconds |
4 Star |
||
Something similar happened to the Millinium Bridge in London |
Right click and play in your own player to get a big screen | 5 Star | ||
Watch as a helicopter's propellors are responsible for tearing the helicopter apart |
45 second from Youtube |
5 Star |
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| Match the natural frequency of the stretched spring with the motor to get disaster! | From absorblearning.com | |||
| Physics of Music | Introduction to the Physics of Music. |
Very useful if you're a musician |
4 Star |
|
Frequency and Length |
From the 'Physics to go' team |
4 Star |
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Quirky look at the relationship between Frequency and Pitch |
Text-based (from SEED magazine), but short and interesting. |
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| Quality of a note | Why does a piano playing middle C sound different to a violin playing middle C? Harmonics, that's why. |
Very useful explanation of why this effect occurs |
5 Star |
|
| Another nice simulation of the frequency graphs of different instruments playing the same note. | From absorblearning.com | 5 Star | ||
Make your own Harmonics |
Click on Sound, then Fourier: Making Waves |
5 Star |
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Make your own Harmonics |
Scroll down to see the options and click on 'play' to hear the result. | 5 Star | ||
| The Audacity program cited near the top of this page can do the real thing - don't forget to bring in the banjo! | ||||
| Sound Intensity | Nice explanation of the inverse-square law |
Text plus diagrams |
4 Star |
|
Nice explanation of why the surface area of a sphere is invoked for area |
Text plus diagrams |
3 Star |
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| Standing Waves | Nice for demonstrating the natural frequency of a stretched string |
Note the harmonics at multiples of the fundamental frequency of 25 Hz |
3 Star |
|
Very nice for demonstrating resonance in an open and closed tube |
Also demostrates why we need a correction term in the speed of sound experiment. |
5 Star |
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Rubens Tube |
From youtube. 3 minutes. Watch and enjoy. |
5 Star |
||
Rubens Tube - explanation |
From youtube. 2 minutes |
5 Star |
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| Sonic Boom | So what is a Sonic Boom? |
Excellent explanation, this was an entry to a video competition. Nice idea. Three minutes from Youtube |
5 Star |
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Slightly querkier explanation. Three minutes from YouTube |
4 Star |
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Nice image caused by jet fighter plane YouTube. Ten seconds |
4 Star |
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| Miscellaneous | Walk in the shoes of Dean Hudson. As a visually impaired person, Dean depends on audio clues to navigate through the world. |
A five minute look at sound from a rather different perspective |
5 Star |
|
Video Images of a baby in a mammy's womb using ultrasound |
Absolutely amazing. Youtube. 20 seconds |
5 Star |
||
"Air on a g-string" with wine glasses |
One minute Youtube video |
5 Star |
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The real thing is called an "Armonica" |
"Dance of the sugar-plum fairy". Apparently. Youtube video. 3:30 |
4 Star |
||
Shattering a wine-glass using resonance. Can the human voice shatter a wine glass? |
You decide. Youtube. One minute |
4 Star |
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Chladni Plates |
Two-minutes. Youtube |
4 Star |
||
Amazing street drummer in New York subway |
Six-minute youtube video |
5 Star |
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| Demonstration-videos | Demonstration-video on
Sound |
From science teacher Mr Noone. Youtube. 9 minutes. |
4 Star |
|
Demonstration-video on
Sound: |
This is a lot more comprehensive but is about 1 hour 45 mins. |
3 Star |
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Demonstration-video on
Sound: |
Scroll down to Tape 5: The Wonders of Sound. It's about 30 minutes long |
3 Star |