Starter quiz
- Which of the following actions are vibrations?
- repeated growing and shrinking
- repeated movements up and down ✓
- repeated movements left and right ✓
- repeated movements forwards and backwards ✓
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- Three things that can make sounds are: a human speaking, a flute and a violin. How many of these cause sounds by making something vibrate?
- none of them
- one
- two
- three ✓
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- Match each of the following key terms with its definition.
- volume⇔the loudness of a sound ✓
- pitch⇔how high or low a note is ✓
- amplitude⇔the size of a vibration (how far an object vibrates) ✓
- frequency⇔the number of vibrations per second ✓
- Which of the following changes will lower the pitch of the sound made by a drum?
- Make the drum skin less tight. ✓
- Use a smaller drum.
- Hit the drum more softly.
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- If the ______ of the vibration of an object increases, the pitch of the sound it makes also increases.
- 'frequency' ✓
- If the ______ of a vibration of an object increases, this increases the volume of the sound it makes.
- 'amplitude' ✓
Exit quiz
- Which of the following is a description of a wave?
- a travelling disturbance ✓
- a collection of particles
- an amount of energy
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- A vibrating ruler makes a sound. Each time the ruler moves forwards, it pushes air particles forwards. What do these particles do to make the sound travel forwards across the room?
- They travel to the other side of the room.
- They hit air particles in front of them. ✓
- They pull on other air particles that are joined to them.
- They stick to air particles in front of them.
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- Sort the following statements into the correct order to describe what happens to particles that are near the left side of the string when a guitar string is plucked and starts vibrating.
- 1⇔The string hits nearby air particles.
- 2⇔This pushes them in the same direction as the string is moving.
- 3⇔This makes them get closer together.
- 4⇔When the string moves the opposite way, this creates empty space.
- 5⇔Some nearby air particles move into the space because of their random motion.
- Which of the following explains how a person can hear a sound?
- The sound wave makes air build up inside the ear.
- The sound wave makes part of the ear move back and forth. ✓
- The sound wave warms and cools the ear.
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- A scientific model is ______ about a part or behaviour of the real world.
- an exact description
- a picture we can draw
- a good guess we can make
- a helpful but not always accurate way of thinking ✓
- a 3D model we can make (with clay, for example)
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- In a simple model of a sound wave in air, air particles simply move back and forth. The wave travels because particles hit other particles. Which of the following details does this model ignore?
- the fact that air is a gas
- the random motions of the air particles ✓
- the back and forth vibrations of the air particles
- the different types of air particle ✓
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Worksheet
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Lesson Details
Key learning points
- A vibrating object causes nearby air particles to vibrate too.
- Air particles are knocked forwards but then spread backwards when the object moves back.
- Vibrating air particles knock into their neighbours and set them vibrating too, in the same way.
- The pattern of vibrating particles creates a sound wave. Sound does not involve air particles travelling.
- Scientific models often only accurately reflect some aspects of what they represent.
Common misconception
Pupils can think that sound is a material substance, or involves particles of some kind (e.g. of air, or 'of sound') travelling or being blown out from a source.
Spend time exploring and modelling how vibrating objects set particles vibrating, how vibrating particles will collide into neighbouring particles to set them vibrating too, and how patterns of vibrations produce the 'pulses' of a sound wave.
Keywords
Particle - What solids, liquids and gases are made up from.
Vibrate - To regularly and repeatedly move back and forth.
Scientific model - Any way of accurately representing, picturing or imagining a scientific idea.
Wave - A disturbance that travels, like a ripple on water.
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