For the past four weeks, we have been working on building musical instruments. Our task was to build a chime, wind, and strings instrument that could all play the notes A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. My group built a clarinet, a steel drum (an extra instrument), chimes using glass bottles, and a bass-style instrument. All of the building processes and materials that we used are mentioned in the document below, but here are the concepts we learned during this unit:
transverse wave- the medium motion that occurs perpendicular (right angled) to the direction in which a wave travels constructive interference- when the crest of one wave overlaps the crest of another, their individual effects add together (reinforcement) destructive interference- when the crest of one wave overlaps the trough of another; their individual effects are reduced and they cancel each other out node- points on the medium that seem to be standing still (points of no displacement) antinodes- the positions on a standing wave with the largest amplitudes (most displacement) wave- a wiggle in space and time amplitude- the distance from the mid point to the crest (trough) of the wave period- time required to complete one cycle frequency- how often vibrations occur doppler effect- the apparent change in frequency due to the motion of the source wavelength- the distance from the top of one crest to the top of the next crest longitudinal wave- when displacement of the medium is in the same direction as the wave (not perpendicular) red shift- an decrease in frequency blue shift- an increase in frequency
Reflection This project was one of the most fun and innovative projects I have done so far! My group and I encountered many ups and downs during this assignment. One of our peaks was our planning. In the beginning, we did a lot of good research and took a lot of notes, so we had a very good idea of what we had to do. This made our building process much easier and more efficient. Another peak was our multitasking abilities. We would often have a different assignment for each member in the group. For example, one person would be doing measurements, one would be building, and one would be typing our progress and recording our data. It was a very efficient system and helped to get a lot of work done mush faster. Although we had a lot of high points, we had a few low points as well. One of our was staying on task while working. It was very hard for my group to stay on task. We would often get distracted watching videos of how to make instruments, which is on the topic of learning, but is not a productive use of our time. Another pit we had was that we encountered a few rough spots in the building process, and we spent too much time trying to fix what went wrong. For example, when our steel drum wasn't making the right notes, we spent a lot of time trying to fix/adjust it to sound better, when we could have been working on something else that wasn't done yet. We also had to spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to do simple tasks, like screwing our tin can onto the piece of wood. These small setbacks turned into major problems, which threw our time management out of whack. A skill that I learned about myself is that if I really put my mind to something and focus really hard, I can accomplish it much quicker than just doing it in a normal mindset. This was very positive because I was able to work must faster than I normally can. Another skill that I learned about myself is that I am good at keeping everyone on task. If my group members were ever sidetracked, I would be able to help get their focus back to the task at hand. This was helpful since it helped us to get our work done faster. Something I think I could work on is my encouragement of my group members. I am relatively quiet, but I think it would have a positive impact if I occasionally said words of encouragement. Another thing I could work on is my leadership skills. I am occasionally a leader, but in this project I was much more quiet. It is always good to have a little leadership in the group, so I think next time I could step up and take on that role. This project overall was a very creative and fun one, and I learned a lot from it!