Cheeky Music

In our past unit of physics, we learned about waves! There are two types of waves: longitudinal and transverse. We learned a little bit about sound waves which are actually longitudinal waves made by air compressions/rarefactions. So anyways, for my blog today, I decided to make some music using my cheek flicking skillz.

How it works:
Flicking your cheek (or any part of your body for that matter) causes a tiny sound. When you slap a table, sound is heard. When you slap a can sound is heard. On certain objects, a slap can produce a nice ringing sound. In order for that to happen, the object has to have at least one open side where the sound waves can escape. We learned that the harmonic equation for a wave in a closed pipe is fn=n(v/4L) and the equation for the open pipe is fn=n(v/2L). Now that you know wave movement in a closed pipe and open pipe is possible (due to the equations), we can proceed with explaining what I did in this video.

As I flicked my cheek, my cheek vibrates. Vibration creates waves! So what waves are being created in this video? Well, because my cheek is vibrating, the air around it resonates with my cheek. HUH?! In laymen terms, the air feels the vibration and moves. So the air moves around just like it would in a closed pipe. Now why do I call this a closed pipe? Well, I actually have no idea if it is an open pipe or a closed pipe. I just assume it is a closed one because the waves eventually travel out of my mouth. I guess technically the waves could travel down my esophagus but that would still end up being a closed pipe because the waves would eventually hit my stomach acid and then bounce right back out of me......ANYWAYS! So its a closed pipe. And the waves are created by me flicking my cheek. So how am I changing the note? I developed a feel for the notes and my mouth automatically adjusts the size of its opening based on the note I want to play. Cool huh? **Feel free to check the "Brian is Awesome" tab below!