Name: William H.
Status: N/a
Age: N/A
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: Around 1993
Question:
What vibrates to cause sound in a flute? Is there a solid portion
that vibrates or is it just the air?
Replies:
There is no solid vibrating material in a flute. Thesound from a
flute comes from compressive waves (as opposed to transverse waves) in the
flute, the wavelength of which corresponds to the positions of the holes.
Basically, at the holes, the wave must have a node. The simplest case of no
holes is the classic bottle sound, when one blows over the opening of a
bottle. In that case, the wavelength depends on the size of the chamber
alone.
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