Off to Vacation

Today was a busy day, despite being the Friday before winter break, but that's a good thing...

B and C Blocks discussed the idea of sound intensity, looking both at absolute and relative intensity and how changes in sound intensity affected hearing and overall well-being. We discussed how the ear interprets sound loudness and showed how the decibel scale was set up to better reflect how we perceived volume than the actual intensity calculations. We also discussed the fact that the amplitude of a sound wave indicates intensity and used a tuning fork to show how the amplitude of the wave changed as the fork was struck both softly and sharply. When we return, we hit the idea of forced vibrations and resonance before moving onto harmonics and beats.

E Block reviewed their harmonics and beats homework and their vibrations and waves test before viewing a demonstration of formation of beats. Two tuning forks were struck and held in front of a microphone. The computer plotted the interference pattern and the areas of constructive and destructive interference the beat frequency was calculated and compared with the frequency difference between the two tuning forks. When we return, folks will work on their Tones, Vowels and Telephones lab, which was the object of focus for F Block today. Students investigated properties of sound, including shapes of sound waves for a variety of sound sources, measured overtone frequencies, explored how touch-tone phones use sound to transmit numerical information and some students brought their own sound sources like guitars and cell-phone ringtones to examine the resulting sound profiles. When we return, we'll be discussing the idea of harmonics and beats.

Have a great break!