How does helium change a person’s voice when inhaled
In: Biology
There are a couple good answers in here, but they kind of miss the “like Im 5” part, so Ill give this a try.
Sound waves are basically just vibrations in air. You can imagine this as being kind of like ripples on the surface of water. The faster those “ripples” move, the higher it sounds to us, and the slower they are, the lower they sound.
Helium is six times less dense than normal air, so the vibrations can move through it with less resistance. You can imagine this as the difference between a wave going across a pool of honey, vs that same wave going across a pool of water. The water is less dense than the honey, so the water travels faster. And helium is less dense than the normal air we breathe, so the sound waves travel faster. This results in the sound created sounding higher to us.
On a related note, there are other gasses, such as Sulfur Haxefluoride, which are *more* dense than normal air, so they [make your voice sound much deeper.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjJOS0BpgnM)
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