ExplorerGrade 1⏱ 10 min
Sounds are vibrations
Tap a drum with rice on it and pluck thin and thick strings. Loud, quiet, high and low sounds all come from vibrations.
Standards: 1-PS4-1
1Wonder
Put your hand on your throat and hum. What do you feel? Now stop humming. What changed?
2Explore
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Try this
- Tap softly on the drum. Watch the rice. Then tap hard. What is different?
- Tap the drum, then stop it with your hand. What happens to the sound?
- Choose the string. Pluck the thin string, then the thick one. Which one wiggles faster? Which sound is higher?
3Explain
Step 1 of 5
Sound comes from vibrations
When you tap a drum, its skin moves up and down very fast. This back-and-forth shaking is called a vibration. Vibrations make sound.
Sound and vibrations
Sound is made by vibrations. Bigger vibrations are louder. Faster vibrations are higher. When the vibration stops, the sound stops.
4Practice
Question 1 of 5
What makes sound?
5Recap
- Sound comes from vibrations: things moving back and forth very fast.
- Big vibrations are loud; small vibrations are quiet.
- Fast vibrations sound high; slow vibrations sound low.
- Stop the vibration and the sound stops.
- Sound can make other things vibrate.