Turn Up the Volume Trivia Game | Sci / Tech

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1. When you listen to music, you are actually listening to a series of sounds created by the musician. Sound can be heard by humans when it occurs within a certain frequency range. What is the unit of measurement used to express the frequency range of sound?

Answer: Hertz

What in the world is frequency and what is this business of a hertz? Well, frequency is simply the number of times that something happens over a known period of time. Hertz is the unit of measurement used to describe frequency, expressed as the number of times something happens in one second. Suppose you stretch a rubber band between two nails that have been hammered into a board. If you pluck that rubber band, it will vibrate back and forth.

The number of times that happens in one second would be its hertz. If it vibrates 40 times in one second, you could say that the rubber band had a frequency of 40 hertz. 40 hertz is within the hearing range of human beings, typically stated as 12 hertz to 20 kilo-hertz, so you would be able to hear the vibrations of the band.

2. Sound has to vibrate through the air or some sort of solid material in order for it to be heard. What is the name of the material that sound passes through to reach your ear drums?

Answer: Medium

In order for sound to be generated, the sound waves must be passed from one molecule to the next, vibrating each one on its way from the source to your ear. The material that contains these molecules is called the medium. Imagine this, you have a rack containing 12 steel ball bearings packed tightly together. If you place your finger on one end and tap the other end with a hammer, you should be able to feel the vibrations on your finger.

This is because the vibrations pass through each ball until you can feel it on your end. Sound acts in the same way. That's also why you can lose sound over distance.

There isn't enough force to stimulate all of the molecules between a sound source and your ear so the sound becomes lost. Shouting has much more sound force than whispering does, so shouting will vibrate more molecules through air which will increase the distance it can be heard.

3. People often describe their stereo as being loud or that a jet engine is loud. There has to be a way to measure how loud something is so you'll know what is a safe level to be exposed to. What is the unit of measurement that tells you how loud something is?

Answer: Decibel

Decibels are actually a pretty difficult concept to understand, but simply put, decibels are the magnitude or intensity of sound waves compared to a known reference level. For example, let's say you are sitting in an empty room with no noise. The room is dead silent. That could be your reference point of zero decibels. If noise is increased, the decibel level you hear will also increase. Suppose you turn on a ceiling fan. That may cause the noise intensity to increase to ten decibels. Suppose your wife tells you to take out the trash. That may increase the sound to maybe 50 decibels. If someone were to start using a jackhammer, the sound level would increase to 100 decibels.

4. Once a sound is produced, your ear has the ability to pick up the vibrations of the sound waves in the air and convert them into sounds your brain can interpret and recognize. One part of your ear takes these sound waves and converts them into nerve signals that your brain can understand. What is this part of your ear called?

Answer: Cochlea

The ear is basically a marvel of engineering attached to the side of your head. The structure and shape of the ear alone is a wonderful design that helps capture sound waves from the air and direct them into the hearing components of your ear. Your ear drum receives these vibrations and passes them onto the amplification system of your ear (the hammer, anvil and stirrup). Once amplified, sounds are sent to the cochlea for converting into nerve impulses that the brain can interpret as audible sound.

5. Many people have heard the term Doppler effect. Which of these scenarios would best describe the phenomenon of the Doppler effect?

Answer: Standing on a street corner and hearing an emergency vehicle's siren approach you, reach your area and then travel past you.

The shifting of a sound's frequency relative to a stationary object is a description of the Doppler effect. This can happen by many methods. Attaching a whistle to the end of a rope and spinning it around in a circle can provide a Doppler effect to a person standing outside the rope's length as it passes by them. Doppler effect can apply to other things as well.

A ship passing by a buoy in the water can produce waves which can be used to detect its speed and relative location. Police can use the waves from their radar gun to detect the speed of a moving car. And everyone has heard of the radar systems used by meteorologists to predict weather patterns.

These are all functions of the Doppler effect.

6. Not all sound can be heard by the human ear. Sometimes these inaudible sound waves can be useful for reasons other than just hearing. Medical and industrial technicians use certain ranges of sound frequencies in diagnosing conditions of the human body or the condition of a welded steel plate. What range of frequencies would these be described as?

Answer: Ultrasonic

Ultrasonic sound waves, or ultrasound, is described as those waves which occur at a frequency higher than can be heard by the human ear. Humans hear sounds in the range of 12 hertz to 20 kilo-hertz, so ultrasound are in the frequencies higher than 20 kilo-hertz.
Most popular in the medical field is the detection of the fetus while still inside the mother. Determining the age and the sex of the fetus is possible. In addition, technicians can also determine that the baby has a healthy heart rate, can detect a multiple pregnancy and can ensure there are no abnormalities present.
Industrial applications of ultrasound typically revolve around welding operations to determine the presence of defects which could cause a weld to break or crack. Cleaning can also be performed by ultrasonics. A high speed cavitation at the outlet of a nozzle or sprayer can be created which resonates at high frequencies to produce a jet-like spray which can be focused to clean an object. Similar to a spray nozzle on a water hose, but a little more high-tech.

7. Musical chords are made when different notes are played together so that their intervals are harmonics of one another. The result is typically pleasing to the ear. When the chords produce different notes that are not in harmony, the sound can be shrill or unpleasant. What is this term?

Answer: Dissonance

Consonance is when chords are played in frequencies that sound "peaceful" with one another while dissonance is when the frequencies are "at tension" with one another. Commonly, consonant chords are composed by using a root note, applying the third note above the root and then including the fifth note. Dissonance can be achieved by altering this pattern, such as playing the root, the third note and then the sixth one instead of the fifth. You can also make a chord dissonant by adding an additional note to the consonant chord.

8. If an oboe, a clarinet and a bassoon all played the same note at the same pitch and frequency, the discerned listener could distinguish between the three instruments. Which of the following terms describes the reason this distinction can be made?

Answer: Timbre

The reason you know instantly who it is on the other end of the telephone is because your ear has been trained to respond to the timbre of their voice. The same can be applied to anything that produces sound. Even though the oboe, clarinet and bassoon are all woodwind instruments, there is enough difference in how the sounds are produced that their timbres are different. Sometimes timbre is referred to as tonal color.

Some instruments may be considered to have "bright" tones while other instruments may be considered to have "dark" tones.

9. By playing sounds of varying frequencies in relation to one another, the musician can achieve a melody. What is the term for the relationship between these notes which vary in sound and frequency?

Answer: Pitch

Different musical instruments change their pitch by different methods. Take a string instrument for example. Pitches can be changed by varying the qualities of the length of the string, the tension of the string or the density of the string. You can lengthen the string to increase or decrease the frequency when it's plucked which will alter its sound. You can take a length of string and vary the tension (or tightness) and the sound will change accordingly. If you take two strings of the same length and tension, but vary the density (weight), the sound will be different when they are plucked together.

10. Which term relates to the difference in the increasing and decreasing of a sound's intensity?

Answer: Loudness

Loudness is a qualitative measurement while volume, amplitude and sound pressure are all quantitative. Volume is the amount of sound that is present and can be measured in decibels. Amplitude is a part of volume, it is the change in amplitude that changes a person's perception of volume. Sound pressure is another part of volume as well. Measured in pascals, the relationship between pressure and volume is proportional.

The more pressure, generally the more sound. This can be demonstrated by measuring the sound pressure of a jet engine (200 pascals) versus the sound pressure of a chainsaw (6 pascals).

The decibel level of the jet is 140 while the decibel level of the chainsaw is only 100. More sound pressure, more decibels.

Source: Author ralzzz

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor crisw before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

Turn Up the Volume Trivia Quiz

This quiz will look at the science of sound used in concert halls or theaters, the science of acoustical physics. Don't fret though, we'll keep this quite simple.

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