Week 30 Reflection

This week in physics we continued to study sound waves and began to discover the speed of sound. We held an experiment in which a person clapped two wooden blocks together and walked further and further away. The point where the blocks were apart from each other when you heard the clap of the blocks was the sweet spot. The time it takes for the hitting of the blocks and the clap is equal to the amount of time it takes to reach your ears. We found out that it takes .25 seconds to reach our ears from a distance of 83 meters. The actual speed of like is 300,000,000 meters per second, or 186,000 miles per second. 

In addition to our experiment, we also learned that the speed of different sounds is affected by the medium and temperature. A mechanical wave is a wave that needs a medium to travel. We experienced this with the Ruben's Tube, which was a tube that you could like that would show the sound of music moving through the fire in a wave. It was cool to see how different songs and beats went through the fire. It's nice to actually see things happening than talking about things you haven't visually seen. 

On Wednesday we began looking at a worksheet in preparation for our assessment that includes equations regarding wavelength, frequency, velocity, and the period. Velocity equals wavelength times the frequency and and the frequency equals one divided by the period. Also, the period and frequency are reciprocals. The greater the wavelength the less the frequency. The highest pitch is the wave that has the highest frequency and the lowest pitch is the wave that has the lowest frequency. Because I wasn't in class on Friday, I will take my assessment tomorrow on this material.