Evidence of Work and Content

For this project, my team and I were told to create 3 different instruments keeping in mind our understanding of waves. This was our first project back partially in person, and I worked with Liliana Vasquez and Ryan Raleigh. Ryan made a flute, I made chimes, and Liliana made a ukulele. Overall, I think this was a really fun project and we worked really well together. Below is a description of all of our instruments, note charts, and pictures.

woodwind instrument : flute

My instrument is a Flute made out of PVC pipe. I am aiming for the notes C4-C5. Each note has a different hole since every note needs different wavelengths. My flute is 36cm and I will have seven holes for air to come out and one hole to blow into. Each hole is the same size except the one you blow into. The sound comes out of the end of the flute and the different holes depending on which note I play. Every note needs a different wavelength to be played so you have to find the distance you need by dividing it by 4. The first note was going to have the frequency of 261.63HZ but instead I got 537.6HZ. In the table below you can see that I am one octave off form what I was aiming for. I noticed that I am getting ½ wavelength and not ¼.I think that the PVC pipe thickness changes the notes. Also my playing skills are not the best so I could be blowing at different speeds. So that could change the notes that I play. Another reason I think this could be happening is that my measurements when I drilled into the pipe were off or sideways. Lastly I think that even the holes change the notes since the size of the hole changes how much air is let through.

percussion instrument : chimes

My instrument is chimes, made out of a wood structure and metal pipes. When one of the pipes is hit, it vibrates and gives off a tune. Unlike the other instruments, there is no exact scale for chime tunes since each material used for chimes has a different natural frequency. Natural frequency depends on what kind of frequency and vibration a material gives off. The longer and stronger the material is, the bigger frequency it gives off. That’s why my longer pipes are low-pitched and my shorter pipes are high-pitched. I followed a scale, telling me how long each pipe should be in relation to the longest pipe. I have included the notes, wavelengths, frequencies, and the lengths below. The instrument can stand up anywhere and the sound is amplified when the instrument is placed on top of a desk or table, or when the pipes are hit harder.

strings instrument : ukulele

My instrument is similar to a ukulele. I found the frame of a body, which was a rectangular box with a hole in the center in the maker space. From there I attached the neck, then sanded the whole thing down. I then attached the four strings to the bottom part of the body using nails. Once those were attached I found the distance to one note and screwed all of the strings to that length. After having the base down I then adjusted the screws to the notes that I needed. I got the notes that I needed by having different thicknesses in the strings and tightening or loosening them to the desired note. The reason I was able to make a sound was because of the string tension. The tighter I made the string the higher the frequency, and the looser the string the lower the frequency. The same goes for the thickness of the string. The thinner the string is the higher the frequency, and the thinker the string the lower the frequency. That is why my strings go from thickest to thinnest, and from loosest to tightest string.