If you play the exact same same note on two different musical instruments the sound will not be the exact same. What changed and what stayed the same?

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(in the sense that you will know if you heard a piano or a guitar) what stayed the same and what changed with the sound wave? Second related question, if you get two people to say the word “hello” they will sound completely different but you will be able to hear that they both said hello. So in that case what changed with the sound wave and what stayed the same?

Sorry if it’s the wrong flair I put it as physics because sound waves so yeah

In: Physics

12 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

What stays the same: the string vibrates at the same frequency.

What is different (not an exhaustive list):

Things leading up to the sound being initiated- the tension of the string, the composition of the string, the nature of the force acting on the string, how the force acts on the string, how long the force acts on the string, what materials are interacting with the string.

Things after the sound is initiated- the direction of the vibrations relative to your ear, the materials the vibrations have to pass through to get to your ear, the vibrations of *those* materials generating secondary sounds, reflections of those vibrations off of who-knows-what, and how all this mess comes together in your ear.

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