Volunteen is our youth volunteer and employment readiness program offering opportunities for teenagers to engage in fun and meaningful work at the Thinkery preparing them for future endeavors. This post was authored by one of our fantastic volunteens, Olivia! Thanks for the great writeup, Olivia!
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Sound travel’s in waves. When you speak, the air particles around your mouth vibrate in a certain pattern and make a wave. That wave carries the sound through the air and to other people’s ears. Want to see what a wave looks like? Create your own wave machine!
You will need:
- 1 roll of duct tape
- 2 Chairs
- 40 – 60 skewers
- 80 – 120 gumdrops
- 2 people or other large weights
Directions:
- Sound can’t travel in empty space, so first we need to make a representation of air particles. To do so, take a skewer and slide one gumdrop onto each end.
- Repeat until you have made 40 – 60 air particles.
- Next, we’ll make the body of the machine. Take the two chairs and place them 10 – 15 apart. Then, string a long piece of duct tape between them, sticky side up. Make sure the duct tape is taught (it shouldn’t sag). You will need to weigh down the chairs to keep them from flying across your room or yard.
- Now, let’s put it all together! Take your air particles and stick them to the duct tape strip. Make sure they’re centered and spaced evenly apart (about 3” in between particles). Attach as many as needed to fill the whole length of tape.
- Lastly, take another very long piece of duct tape and CAREFULLY attach it to the top of the air-particle-duct-tape-strip. I find it works best to feed the duct tape directly off the roll and stick it to the strip a little at a time.
You’re finished! This is a super simple (and delicious) project to visually understand how sound travels! To see your sound wave in action, make a “noise” by tilting the duct-tape at one end back and forth and watching the vibration travel from one end to the other. Increase or decrease the amplitude (size) of the wave by tilting it more or less, or the frequency and wavelength by tilting it faster or slower.
