Watch the vibration
Sound is produced by vibrations that travel through a medium.
Sound Maker
Change a vibrating string and compare the pattern and pitch it produces.
Grades 3–5 · Physics
Your goal
Make a 50 cm string and compare its pitch.
Reduced motion is on. The controls still update the scene.
314 vibrations each second. Shortening the string raises its frequency and pitch.
cm
Sound is off. You can explore using the picture alone.
The string picture moves 220 times slower than the real vibration. Its motion still speeds up as frequency rises. The trace shows the frequency at a fixed time scale. Picture height stays the same, so changing loudness is not confused with changing pitch. This ideal string keeps its tension and material fixed.
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Learn with Sound Maker
Sound Maker helps students connect a vibrating string's length with its frequency and pitch. Shorten or lengthen the same ideal string, compare the wave trace, and choose whether to start the slowed visual motion or listen to a quiet tone. The tension and material stay fixed so the effect of length is easier to investigate. Elementary learners can discover that shorter strings vibrate more frequently and produce higher pitch, while keeping pitch separate from loudness.
What to look for
Compare the pitch
More vibrations each second produce a higher pitch.
Listen when ready
Sound starts only when you choose to listen. You can stop it and continue using the visual model.
For teachers and curious learners
Connect vibration frequency with sound pitch. Ask students to predict what will happen, change one setting, and explain what they observe. Learn gives a starting point. Practice and Challenge offer new goals with the same scene.
The sound is a quiet synthesized tone illustrating frequency. It is not a recording or a complete physical model of a real string instrument.
Continue with Sound Pitch and Frequency Explorer .