Sound on an oscilloscope
In this activity, students play different kinds of sounds near a computer’s microphone and watch the resulting visual display created by oscilloscope software.
Frequency
This graph shows different frequencies of sound waves. As the frequency increases, the distance between the peaks of the sine wave graph decrease.
By the end of this activity, students should be able to:
relate the visual display to each sound played
appreciate the complexity of amplitudes and frequencies within real sounds.
Download the Word file (see link below) for:
introduction/background notes
instructions on what you need and what to do
discussion questions
extension ideas.
Related content
In this activity, students make a hydrophone and use it to listen to underwater sounds.
The article Sound – understanding standing waves will help students name the types of sound waves they see displayed.
