Orchestra Concert!

Yesterday Orchestra 4 and 5 had a concert at Mamiya Theater. I couldn't believe this was the last concert I was going to play in as a member of Orchestra 4. It was kind of sad to know that I won't be involved in orchestra anymore after the end of the school year. By the end of the last piece we played, it sort of hit me that my time in orchestra for the last four years is about to come to an end. I decided to do this week's journal on material we covered last chapter about frequency.

Physics is clearly in play during an orchestra concert. Each instrument, whether string or wind, expresses certain frequencies to produce sound. The fundamental frequency of a string instrument like a violin is determined by the the string's mass per length and tension. Both change the wave speed of the string which change the frequency of the strings. Each string on the violin has a different linear density and tension. Tension on the string can either increase or decrease by turning the tuning pegs by the scroll of the violin. Playing certain notes on the violin create specific lengths that therefore create different fundamental frequencies. The fundamental frequency is calculated by dividing the wave speed of the string by two times the string length or the string's wavelength. Harmonics are multiples of the the fundamental frequency.

Music created by instruments is all because of physics!

Sound Waves

Last week I borrowed a couple cds from the library to listen to. I was excited to have borrowed two of Coldplay's albums. After compiling the songs I liked out of the stack of cds, I downloaded them to my mp3 player. In physics, we are currently learning about waves and vibrations. I am able to listen to the cds on my stero because of the sound waves that protrud from the stero. Vibrations within the stero create sound waves that carry energy and are interpreted into sound by my ears. Vibrations are any periodic motions that move back and forth. Any kind of waves, such as sound waves, are made of vibrations that move through any medium and are classified by how particles move. Sound waves are known as longitudual waves, meaning that particles in the medium vibrate parallel to the direction the wave is traveling. As sound waves travel, they spread out and the intensity of the soud diminishes with distance.

When I turn up the volume to the stero, I change the amplitude of the sound wave by making it higher.

I didn't pay attention to how physics played a role in how my stero works until learning about this chapter. It is pretty interesting!