Vibrating Columns of Air with Bottle Flutes and Panpipes

This lesson is a small part of a larger unit on the science of sound. The unit has several sections, including: how sound is made, the elements of sound, how sounds travel, and how we hear sounds. This particular lesson is part of the section in which we distinguish the difference between musical sound and noise. We examine the different ways in which musical instruments make sound - or the different way each one creates vibrations of air. In this lesson, students examine how sound can be produced by vibrating the column of air inside an instrument, and how these sounds change depending on the length of the column of air.