Babies are really intelligent. How, you ask? Well, when they cry for their mother, they already understand that air has the amazing ability to transport sound. So, next time you see a baby, know that you’re dealing with a master of acoustic physics!
Why are we talking about cry-babies? Well, we discovered last time that the voice is the first instrument we humans learn to use. Now if we want to understand song and music, we need to understand the most basic building block of sound — Vibrations.
Open your mouth. Say “aaah”. Go ahead (I know you’re not at the doctor’s, but still). When you let air from your lungs pass through your voice box (doctors call this the larynx), the air bounces and jostles with your larynx and gets all roughed up. The air particles which were travelling smoothly up your throat a moment ago are now agitated and energetic. And what happens when you’re all agitated and energetic? You get told to sit down and be quiet because you’re making too much noise, right? Well, it’s the same with air.
Vibrating alerts
The air is now full of throbbing, vibrating air particles. Now, this bouncy air comes out of your open mouth and shakes up the air outside and near your ear. And when it enters your ear, it is finally told to sit down and be quiet as the ear absorbs all of its vibrations. But just as you’re mommy’s little pooshnikaa even when noisy, the air’s noise is music to your ears!
Your ear loves to come in contact with noisy air. Check out its shape. Its outer part, the ear lobe, is cupped and shaped like a funnel. As soon as vibrating air particles come near it, they are almost sucked in towards the ear canal like you slurp down Maggi noodles. Inside this ear canal is a really tiny little drum called the eardrum (yes, you have a percussion instrument inside your head!).
The air particles now pass their vibration baton to your eardrum, which passes the baton to tiny ear bones, which tell your brain that you’ve just said “aaah”. Phew! And just think, you did all this simply by annoying the lazy air near your mouth with your voice, your very own instrument!
