Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Blog 12: Physics and Music

From 7th to 9th grade, I participated in band at 'Iolani.  I played the clarinet, and one question that always puzzled me was, "Why does my instrument sound so much lower than the flute when they look very similar?"  After these past few weeks in physics, I have finally learned the answer to that question.  It is not a matter of the material of the instruments, although that does make a slight difference, but rather on how we (the musician play each instrument.  While playing a clarinet, we cover one end of the cylindrical, tubular intrument, making it a closed end tube.  The flute is played by blowing air across an opening, but not covering the opening entirely, therefore it is an open ended tube.  In a closed ended tube such as a clarinet, the sound waves travel twice as far as they would in an open ended tube like a flute.  This larger distance therefore makes the frequency of the sound in the clarinet less, which then makes the sound from the clarinet sound much lower than the flute.

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