Vibrations and speech
If you put your hand to your throat, you will notice a lumpy box below your chin, that’s the voice box or larynx.
It’s the part of the body that lets us speak and sing. Remember for sound to exist there has to be vibration. The voice box creates a perfect space for sound to vibrate. On the inside of the larynx, there are two bands of muscles called vocal cords. These cords are responsible for making a sound when they vibrate. If you touch your larynx and hum a song you will actually feel it moving.
Fun facts about sound
- Animals with larger ears can hear better. Foxes have such good hearing they can hear a mouse squeak from 100 metres (330 feet) away!
- Flies cannot hear sound.
- An echo is produced when sound waves bounce off objects instead of being absorbed.
- The scientific study of sound waves is called acoustics.
- Wind has no sound. When it blows against obstacles it makes a sound.
- Sound waves can travel through and bend around corners and obstacles.
- Electrocardiograms and ultrasounds are medical machines that use sound waves.
- The loudest natural sound on Earth is an erupting volcano. The Krakatoa eruption in 1883 was recorded to have the loudest sound produced in the world.
- Someone who fears noise has acousticophobia.
- Sound waves like thunder cannot only be heard by the ears but felt by the body.
- Lightning heats up air particles very quickly, pushing them outwards making a huge sound wave called thunder; this is why we see lightning before we hear thunder.
