Lesson 2 of 7

Making sound

Goal: Explain how sounds are made and how they travel.

Puzzles for this lesson

Word search0 of 8 foundCrossword0 of 34 letters
Grains of rice jumping off the skin of a drum as a drumstick hits it

Every sound starts with a vibration. The vibration travels through the air as a wave.

  • A vibration is a back and forth movement. A drum skin, a guitar string and the cone of a loudspeaker all vibrate.
  • The vibrating object pushes on the air particles next to it. They push on the next ones, and so on, all the way to your ear.
  • Sound is a longitudinal wave. The particles move back and forth along the same line as the wave travels.

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Key words in this lesson

Wave A vibration that carries energy from place to place, but not matter

Longitudinal wave Its vibration is along the same line as the wave travels

Vibration A back and forth movement that repeats

Loudspeaker Turns an electrical signal into a sound wave

For teachers: AQA 3.4.1 · Pearson Edexcel 36.1 · Cambridge 7Ps.01