Project Description: During this project, we were required to build our own playable instruments. Our instruments had to be able to play a whole octave of notes. We were required to build chimes, a wind instrument, and a string instrument. Our group build chimes, a trumpet of pvc pipe and a one string bass. After building these instruments, we had to make a document describing how they worked and why we chose to build them as we did. Along with this was a demonstration of our instruments playing all their scales.
Document:
Concepts:
Wavelength: Wavelength is the distance from any point on one wave to the same point on the next wave. It can be calculated using the equation: wavelength =v/f
Frequency: Frequency is how many vibrations a wave has in a period of time. Frequency is measured in Hz, which is waves per second. It can be calculated using f=wave speed/wavelength, or f=1/period.
Wave Speed: Wave speed is the speed at which a wave travels.It is calculated by the formula wave speed=D/t, or wave speed = f/wavelength. Wave speed is measured in m/s.
Period: Period is the amount of time between vibrations in a wave. It is measured in seconds. Period can be calculated using the equation: Period =1/f.
Amplitude: Amplitude is the distance from a wave's equilibrium to it's crest. It is the volume in sound waves. Amplitude is measured in meters and there is no formula because it is just a distance.
Transverse wave: Transverse waves travel in one direction, and the direction they vibrate in is perpendicular to the direction they travel. The electromagnetic spectrum consists of tranverse waves, which is made up of visible light, ultraviolet, infrared, x-ray, gamma, radio, and microwave. Tranverse waves are faster than alternative waves and can also travel through a vacuum.
Longitudinal wave: Longitudinal waves are the second type of wave. Their direction of travel and vibration are the same. A longitudinal wave compresses and expands whatever medium it travels. An example of a longitudinal wave is a sound wave. Longitudinal waves travel slower than transverse waves. Since they need a medium to move, longitudinal waves cannot move in a vacuum, such as space. So whenever you watch a movie, and there is an explosion in space, and you hear it, they are lying to you. True story.
Reflection: Over the course of this project, I vastly expanded my understanding on how instruments work, especially string and chime instruments. Overall the project went fairly well with a few peaks and pits. One of our peaks was that we all were very comfortable around one another willing to pretty much say anything, this helped us greatly with communication between group members. Another peak was that we were very good at solving our own problems that we made. This is mostly because of our ability to fix our bass after we decided to change designs. Besides these two peaks, there were two pits. First is that we kept constantly having to change our ideas and how we would go about building our project, which gave us less time overall to complete the project. Second, throughout most of our project, we were split into two different groups, which, at the time seemed helpful, but I quickly realized that it was not. Overall, I feel that this project went very well for our group, creating three successful instruments.