Chapter 13
Grasping How Animals and Instruments Produce Sound Waves
In This Chapter
Probing the properties of noise
Vibrating with the sound: Resonance
Making sweet music with cords
Animals use sound for different functions, such as mating and echolocation. The range of sounds produced by humans is amazing. Most animals actually have a very limited range of sounds, but some like the crow can produce more than 50 distinct sounds, whereas the human species uses sounds for communication and entertainment.
Sound waves are pressure waves that propagate through material, which allows a person to transmit energy to another person. The energy interacts with the other person’s ear and produces a signal, which the brain interprets. Hearing is one of the five senses, and how to produce sounds and music as opposed to noise is an important concept in biophysics.
This chapter focuses on longitudinal pressure waves, which most people refer to as sound. Here I look at the properties of sound waves and discuss the properties of making music and singing. I also discuss resonance in musical instruments and then focus on how the guitar and the human voice make sound.
Knowing the Nature of Sound ...
Get Biophysics For Dummies now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
