Build a Band

Evidence/Process

This was a great project that I really was enjoying before it was ended early due to the shelter in place order for Covid-19. The idea of this project was to make three instruments- wind, chime, and string that each played at least 8 different notes. My group and I made a pan flute, hanging chimes, and a guitar. We had to work very hard and do a lot of careful calculating in order to achieve our 8 perfect notes for each instrument. Our first step was blueprinting. We made a lot of these, and changed our designs several times. But eventually, we came up with a perfect idea of what we wanted to create. Then we moved onto calculating. These were very important and took a lot of time and work. We had to be very careful to get everything right in order to produce the right notes. Our next step was to build the instruments. Since there was 3 of us, we each worked on an instrument. I worked on our wind instrument, the pan flute. I used PVC pipes to make this. I calculated how long each pipe had to be for each note, then cut them to that length. I covered the bottoms of each pipe, then glued the pipes together to create my instrument. Fortunately, I was able to finish my instrument, but sadly our project was cut short because school had to close due to the Corona virus. We did some work at home including an instrument write-up on each of our instruments and creating a rap.

Content

Wavelength- The distance from crest to crest of a wave. A wavelength determines the frequency of a sound.

Frequency- The number of vibrations (or number of waves) per second. Frequency is measured in Hertz. The frequency determines the pitch of a sound.

Wave speed- How fast a wave travels. The equation to find wave speed is (wavelength) x (frequency).

Amplitude- The height of a wave from mid-line to crest. The higher the amplitude, the louder the sound.

Transverse waves- A model that shows how energy is transferred where particle motion is perpendicular to direction of wave motion.

Longitudinal waves- Another model of how energy is transferred where particles compress and rarify as energy moves along (parallel to wave motion).

Period- The amount of time for one wave (time per vibration cycle)

Reflection

I found this project to be a really great experience. I have always loved music, but this project allowed me to get a deep understanding of the physics behind it. I learned about so many new things such as frequencies, amplitude, and wave lengths. All these things play a very important role in how an instrument works, and I found it very interesting to deepen my understanding on a topic I love.

In this project, I thought I did a good job at staying focused and making sure I got my work done. I was very proud of myself for finishing my instrument even before our time at school to build them was cut short. I felt I really improved my critical thinking as I worked on this assignment. I discovered all kinds of new information and worked hard. I think I need to keep working on my collaboration skills. I think my group and I could've worked better together on doing the blueprints together and checking in on each other during the building process. Overall, I think this project went very well and I had a great time with it. From building, to creating a fun rap with my group, I found this project to be one of my favorites and I think I really learned a lot from it.