Sound
Explore Science: Wave Motion
*****
These eight interactive wave motion demonstrations for middle-
school and high-school students are awesome. The first activity,
Sound Beats, allows you to experiment with sounds that are very
similar in frequency. Based on what you learn, can you determine
the frequency of the mystery sounds? In Doppler Effect 1, you
can watch sound waves originating from a moving source. You'll
learn why a train whistle changes in pitch as it passes you and
how sonic booms are created.
Physics Classroom: Waves, Sound and Light
*****
This collection of animations will help first-year physics
students visualize and better understand the science of sound
and light waves. You can step through the animations, following
the menu on the left, or you can jump to the Physics Tutorials
on "Waves" or "Sound Waves and Color." The tutorials are divided
into lessons that include self-scoring quizzes. Can't find the
answer to your homework problem? Questions can be posted in the
homework help forum; look for the link on the About page.
School for Champions: Sound
****
"Sound is a compression waveform that moves through air or other
materials. Sound waves are created by the vibration of some
object and are detected by causing a sensor to vibrate. Sound
has the standard characteristics of any waveform." This one-page
middle-school lesson introduces the concepts and vocabulary of
sound (such as amplitude and wavelength) and concludes with a
three-question quiz.
Sound Site
*****
Click on the bouncing ball (you'll hear it boing, boing, boing
if you have QuickTime installed) to enter my pick-of-the-day
site for elementary students. Created by the Science Museum of
Minnesota, Sound Site is divided into four sections. Visit
Activities for ten offline experiments, such as Making a Model
Eardrum or Designing a Reed Instrument. Discussions is a
collection of audio interviews about the art of composing music.
Performance takes you behind the scenes of a Minnesota Orchestra
premier. Soundcards are noise snippets you can share with
friends via e-postcards.
The Soundry: The Physics of Sound
****
The Soundry is an award-winning ThinkQuest Internet Challenge
entry from 1998, created by three high-school students. To get
the most from The Soundry, you'll need to familiarize yourself
with their menu abbreviations used at the bottom of each page.
Clicking on A will take you to page discussing Applications of
the topic. P is for the Physics behind the topic. My favorite
Soundry clicks are the Interactive explorations found at I.
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