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Hello ! We, Laurine, Lou-Ann and Mona, are from Baudelaire high-school from Annecy, France. We created this website within the framework of the TPE (in French, Travaux Personnels Encadrés, which means supervised personal works). We had to choose a subject and we had to incorporate math and physics in this 5 month group project.
Enjoy our project about sounds !
Hearing is one of the most important senses a person can have. It allows him/her to hear sounds through the mechanical waves that are transmitted and which stimulate the hearing organs. Well before our birth, our internal ear is the first sense that works and which sends the first information to our brain.
Each of the Earth’s components (air, water, trees, and animals, including man) can create sounds that are unique from each other. Humans create sounds through their voice and actions. They have also developed instruments in order to create sounds such as those that are used in music. Indeed, pianos and organs, guitars and violins, drums and bongos, cymbals and xylophones are only a few of the instruments that are made by man in order to enjoy music. Music is a form of art based on sounds, and the musical note is a combination of pitch and duration.
Music plays a significant role in man’s life; it is present in all cultures. Even during prehistoric times, man was known to have enjoyed music as evidenced by ancient musical instruments found in ruins of ancient civilizations. It has many genres with common elements such as pitch, rhythm, dynamics, timbre, and texture.
While music has a pleasing effect on the listener, noise is unpleasant to hear. It is created by irregular waveform, with low frequency, and sudden changes in wave length. It is an unwanted sound, usually very loud, and without meaning. With the popularity of rock music, what is considered noise by other people may be music to the ears of others.
Our ear can distinguish if sounds are pleasant or not. But how does scientific knowelgde help us to determine an enjoyable musical sound ? In fact, physics (including frequency and harmonics), maths, musical scales and other facts can help us to explain why some sounds are more enjoyable than others. To make it more understandable to anyone, we explained every thing about sonds and to make it more concrete, we took the example of the violin. We have developed this work without taking into account our each ones musical tastes.