Vibrations & Sound
Understand that vibrating materials can make sound, and that sound can make materials vibrate
What a learner can do afterwards
- Describe that sounds are made when objects vibrate (move back and forth quickly)
- Give at least three examples of vibrating objects making sound (drum skin, guitar string, voice box)
- Demonstrate that sound can cause objects to vibrate (e.g. rice on a drum jumps when you shout near it)
The lesson
Every sound starts with something moving fast. That fast back-and-forth movement is called a vibration. When something vibrates, it pushes the air around it, and that push travels to your ears as sound.
Pluck a guitar string and it blurs into a fuzzy line. That blur is the string vibrating too fast to see clearly. A drum skin bounces up and down when you hit it, and your voice box buzzes inside your throat when you talk or sing.
Sound can also make other things vibrate. Put a few grains of rice on a drum skin and shout close to it. The sound pushes the drum skin, and the drum skin bounces the rice around.
Put your fingers gently on your throat while you talk. You will feel a buzzy vibration under your skin. That is your voice box making sound.
Sound comes from things vibrating fast, and sound can make other things vibrate too.
Watch it
Where it sits
Where this leads
Jobs that lean on this skill. Follow one to see everything it is built on.
8 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.