Sound

By: Billy Jason Vuelta

Identify each of the sounds
to be played by the teacher.
Activity 1
 Using the phone of one of your
groupmates, play music for 5
minutes. Compare the battery
level of the phone before and
after playing.
Activity 2
 Let one groupmate place his or her
ear directly against the arm of a
chair, then tap the arm of that chair.
 Repeat the activity, but now that
groupmate will not place his or her
ear on the arm of the chair. Compare
the sounds heard.
Sound waves
Sound waves are
mechanical, longitudinal
waves produced by
vibration of objects.
Like other waves,
sound waves carry
energy. Because of
this, the source of
sound must supply
energy for sound to
be produced.
Sound is produced by
vibration. Any vibrating
object can be a source
of sound.
 Sound waves propagate in
three dimensions.

 Because of this, sound

propagation in rooms and other
enclosures are more
complicated.
How would you solve this?
 Teachers often suffer from
throat problems, for most of the
time, they use voice not only to
teach but also to manage the
classroom. How could we
reduce incidents like this?
Characteristics of sound
Pitch, loudness, and quality
 Sing “do re mi fa so la ti do”
softly until you reach the
highest tone that you could.

 After you reached the highest

tone, sing it from the beginning,
but this time, sing it louder.
Activity 1
 Play some of the songs on your
phone for not more than 3
minutes. Identify which of the
singers have the highest voice
and the lowest voice.
Activity 2
 Have a group conversation for
3 minutes and record it.
Compare the quality of one
another’s voice. Make sure that
your conversation is not too
loud so that it would not
interfere with the others.
Activity 3
 Identify some sources of
sounds in school and rank them
from loudest to softest.
Pitch
 The highness or lowness of a
sound. It depends almost
completely on the frequency of
the sound wave.
 Sound source Frequency range (Hz)
Turtle 7 000 – 120 000
Bat 10 000 – 120 000
Component system 15 – 30 000
Piano 30 – 4 100
Frog 50 – 8 000
Human voice 85 – 1 100

Note: The human ear can only hear sound

ranging from 20 Hz to 20 000 Hz. Sounds waves
below 20 Hz are called infrasonic waves while
sound waves above 20 000 Hz are called
ultrasonic waves.
Loudness
 The loudness of the sound is
determined mainly by the
amplitude of the sound wave.
The greater the amplitude, the
greater the perceived loudness
of a sound.
 Sound Loudness (dB)
Thunder 130
Rock concert (2 m) 120
Construction site (3 m) 110
Shout (1.5 m) 100
Heavy truck 90
Urban street 80
Busy traffic 70
Quiet office 50
Bedroom at night 30
Normal breathing 10

Note: 120 dB = threshold of pain, 0 dB = threshold of hearing

Tone Quality
 Tone quality, or timbre, is used
to distinguish between two
different sounds that have the
same pitch and loudness.
How would you solve this?

 How would a man cover a

woman’s song without changing
the key?
 How would a woman cover a
man’s song without changing
the key?
Assignment
 Read about male sopranos and
cite some examples.
 Material Speed of sound (m/s)
Air (20˚C) 344
Water 1440
Hard wood 4000
Steel 5000
Mercury 1451
Pyrex glass 5170
Brass 3480
Factors affecting the speed of sound