Detection of Sound and Sound Quality

[greenseeking]

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TBR Physics passage

When the same note is played by violin, piano, trumpet, human ear recognizes that the same note was produced by diff sources. What property makes this possible?

a)quality
b) frequency
c) wavelength
d) amplitude

The answer is a) quality of sound

I chose frequency bc Frequency dictates what pitch u hear. Like a violin could make a sound that is an f sharp And a piano could make that same f sharp and we would say that's an f sharp. The answer choice said that u should be able to eliminate frequency and wavelength and bet the right answer bc they are complimentary but I dont see how. Could someone please explain? Thank you.

 

[Buttafuoco]

I have no idea what they're talking about with quality, but I think they're just trying to get you to use POE. Different instruments sound different when they play the same frequency, and since the speed of sound in air is fixed, they play the same wavelength too. Amplitude is related to intensity, and neither has some fixed intensity where you could say "it's louder, therefore the trumpet." Just as an aside, the classic thing you will hear is that different instruments let certain higher level harmonics sound or not and that's how you can tell the difference between them. But I think some researchers disproved that a couple years ago and found that the real reason you can tell a certain instrument by hearing is that it produces consonant type sounds right when you begin sounding the note.

 

[chiddler]

no they play the same fundamental frequency. each note across instruments is composed of different wavelengths of different intensities (amplitudes).

i don't know what A means but you can choose it by process of elim as above poster mentioned.

 

[MedPR]

TBR Physics passage

When the same note is played by violin, piano, trumpet, human ear recognizes that the same note was produced by diff sources. What property makes this possible?

a)quality
b) frequency
c) wavelength
d) amplitude

The answer is a) quality of sound

I chose frequency bc Frequency dictates what pitch u hear. Like a violin could make a sound that is an f sharp And a piano could make that same f sharp and we would say that's an f sharp. The answer choice said that u should be able to eliminate frequency and wavelength and bet the right answer bc they are complimentary but I dont see how. Could someone please explain? Thank you.

You can eliminate frequency and wavelength because sound travels at the same speed for all instruments. So if you play the same frequency, you are also playing the same wavelength. Since you can only pick one answer for this question, both frequency and wavelength are wrong.

 

[greenseeking]

Thanks everyone!