Sound in action!

Sound is basically a form of longitudinal wave, where a disturbance causes the layers of medium around the medium to be agitated.

This causes a series of compressions and rarefactions of the medium which will propagate as sound waves outwards from the disturbance.

Now imagine a guitar player. Have you seen one in action?

There, with his right hand, this gentleman is plucking the strings and with his left hand, he is directly adjusting the length of the string he plucks. By doing that, the sound produces will have different wavelengths!

Since all sound travels at 330m/s, by adjusting the wavelength of the note, it will affect the frequency or pitch of the notes!

What about instruments like flutes? Yes, covering the holes along the instrument causes the length of the air column within the flute to change; once again varying the wavelength of the sound, which will affect the frequency/pitch!

So now you know, the next time you see performers on their musical instruments, just how it works!