Question

Explain what happens to the sound waves when a singer hits the high pitched notes during the National Anthem. Be sure to use the terms amplitude and frequency in your answer.

Answer 1

Answer: The frequency increases as the pitch increases, and the amplitude increases as the volume increases

Explanation:

Waves have the property of:

v = f*λ

where v is the speed of the wave (which is almost constant for soundwaves, v = 340 m/s)

f is the frequency of the wave, and λ is the wavelength.

Now, we know that when the pitch of a note increases, also does the frequency of the soundwave (so the wave oscillates faster).

Now, we also want to include the amplitude of the soundwave in this.

The amplitude is related to the volume of the soundwave (actually is related to the energy, and as higher is the energy, more "loud" is the sound).

As the high pitch part is usually "louder", we can assume that we have an amplitude increase.

Then the answer would be:

"The frequency increases as the pitch increases, and the amplitude increases as the volume increases"