Sound

Question 1.
Choose the correct answer.
Sound can travel through
(a) gases only
(b) solids only
(c) liquids only
(d) solids, liquids, and gases
Answer:
(d) solids, liquids, and gases.

Question 2.
Voice of which of the following is likely to have a minimum frequency?
(a) Baby girl
(b) Baby boy
(c) A man
(d) A woman
Answer:
(c) A man

Question 3.
In the following statements, tick ‘T’ against those which are true and ‘F’ against those which are false.

1. Sound cannot travel in a vacuum.

2. The number of oscillations per second of a vibrating object is called its time period.
3. If the amplitude of vibration is large, the sound is feeble.
4. For human ears, the audible range is 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz.
5. The lower the frequency of vibration, the higher is the pitch.
6. Unwanted or unpleasant sound is termed as music.
7. Noise pollution may cause partial hearing impairment.

Answer:

1. True
2. False
3. False
4. True
5. False
6. False
7. True

Question 4.
Fill in the blanks with suitable words.

1. Time taken by an object to complete one oscillation is called _______

2. Loudness is determined by the ________ of vibration.
3. The unit of frequency is ________
4. Unwanted sound is called _______
5. The shrillness of a sound is determined by the ______ of vibration.

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Answer:

1. Time period
2. Amplitude
3. Hertz (Hz)
4. Noise
5. Frequency

Question 5.
A pendulum oscillates 40 times in 4 seconds. Find its time period and frequency.
Answer:
No. of oscillation = 40
Total time is taken = 4 seconds

Question 6.
The sound from a mosquito is produced when it vibrates its wings at an average rate of 500 vibrations
per second. What is the time period of the vibration?
Answer:
Number of vibrations per second = 500

Question 7.
Identify the part which vibrates to produce sound in the following instruments.

1. Dholak
2. Sitar
3. Flute

Answer:

1. Stretched membrane
2. String of sitar
3. Air column

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Question 8.
What is the difference between noise and music? Can music become noise sometimes?
Answer:
The type of sound which are unpleasant to listen is known as noise whereas music is a pleasant sound,
which produces a sensation.
Yes, music can become noise when it’s too loud.

Question 9.
List the sources of noise pollution in your surroundings.
Answer:
Following are the major sources of noise pollution:

 Sound of vehicles
 Sound of kitchen appliances
 Sound of bursting crackers
 Sound of loudspeakers, TV, transistors

Question 10.
Explain in what way noise pollution is harmful to humans.
Answer:
Noise pollution causes:
(a) Lack of sleep
(b) Anxiety
(c) Hypertension
and these are harmful to health.

Question 11.
Your parents are going to buy a house. They have been offered one on the roadside and another three
lanes away from the roadside. Which house would you suggest your parents should buy? Explain your
answer.
Answer:
I would suggest my parents buy a house three lanes away from the roadside because house on the
roadside would be much noisy in both days and night due to running vehicles. Whereas, a house three
lanes away would be comparatively quieter as the intensity of noise decreases with the distance between
the source and the listener.

Question 12.
Sketch larynx and explain its function in your own words.
Answer:
Larynx is also known as voice box. It is at the upper end of the windpipe. Two vocal cords are stretched
across the voice box or larynx in such a way that it leaves a narrow slit between them for passage of air
(Fig. 13.12). When lung force air through the slit, the vocal cords vibrate, producing sound. Muscles
attached to the vocal cords can make the cords tight or loose.

When the vocal cords are tight and thin, the type or quality of voice is different from that when they are
loose and thick.
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Question 13.
Lightning and thunder take place in the sky at the same time and at the same distance from us. Lightning
is seen earlier and thunder is heard later. Can you explain why?
Answer:
The speed of light is more than that of the speed of sound. Thus, due to more speed of light it reaches us
before sound. So, lightning is seen earlier and thunder is heard later.

Don’t write these activity answers in class work read directly from PDF file.

Activity 1 (NCERT Textbook, Page 158)

Take a metal plate (or a shallow pan). Hang it at a convenient place in such a way that it does not touch
any wall. Now strike it with a stick (Fig. 13.1). Touch the plate or pan gently with your finger. Do you feel
the vibrations? Again strike the plate with the stick and hold it tightly with your hands immediately after
striking. Do you still hear the sound? Touch the plate after it stops producing sound. Can you feel
vibrations now?

Solution:
When we touch the pan gently with our finger after striking we feel the vibration. When we hold the pan
tightly after striking it, we do not hear the sound. When the pan stops producing sound it also stops
vibrating. Thus, we can conclude that vibrating body produces sound.

Activity 2 (NCERT Textbook, Page 758)

Jake a rubber band. Put it around the, longer side of a pencil box (Fig. 13.2). Insert two pencils between
the box and the stretched rubber. Now, pluck the rubber band somewhere in the middle. Do you hear any
sound? Does the band vibrate?

Solution:
Yes, we hear the sound on plucking the rubber band. Also, we find that the band is vibrating. Thus, all
vibrating bodies produce sound.

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Activity 3 (NCERT Textbook, Page 758-759)
Take a metal dish. Pour water in it. Strike it at its edge with a spoon (Fig. 13.3). Do you hear a sound?
Again strike the dish and then touch it. Can you feel the dish vibrating? Strike the dish again. Look at the
surface of water. Do you see any waves there? Now hold the dish. What change do you observe on the
surface of water? Can you explain the change? Is there a hint to connect sound with the vibrations of a
body?

Solution:
On striking the metal dish we hear sound and on touching it we feel the dish vibrating. Striking the dish
with water we see circular wave are produced. Thus vibrating object produces sound.

Activity 4 (NCERT Textbook, Page 159)

Take a hollow coconut shell and make a musical instrument ektara. You can also make it with the help of
an earthen pot (Fig. 13.4). Play this instrument and identify its vibrating part.

Solution:
We observed that the vibrating part of the musical instrument ektara is stretched string.

Activity 5 (NCERT Textbook, Page 160)

Take 6-8 bowls or tumblers. Fill them with water upto different levels, increasing gradually from one end
to the other. Now take a pencil and strike the bowls gently. Strike all of them in succession. You will hear
pleasant sounds. This is your Jaltarang (Fig. 13.5).

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Solution:
We can hear a pleasant sound. This is due to different levels of water in the bowls.
Thus, we find that shorter the length of the vibrating air column, higher is the pitch of the sound produced.

Activity 6 (NCERT Textbook, Page 161)

Take two rubber strips of the same size. Place these two pieces one above the other and stretch them
tight. Now blow air through the gap between them [Fig. 13.6(a)]. As the air blows through the stretched
rubber strips, a sound is produced. You can also take a piece of paper with a narrow slit and hold it
between your fingers as shown in [Fig. 13.6(b)]. Now blow through the slit and listen to the sound.

Solution:
This activity shows that vocal cords also produce sound in a similar manner when they vibrate.

Activity 7 (NCERT Textbook, Page 161)

Take a metal or glass tumbler. Make sure that it is dry. Place a cell phone in it. Ask your friend to give a
ring on this cell phone from another cell phone. Listen to the ring carefully.
Now, surround the rim of the tumbler with your hands (Fig. 13.7). Put your mouth on the opening between
your hands. Indicate to your friend to give a ring again. Listen to the ring while sucking air from the
tumbler. Does the sound become fainter as you suck air?
Remove the tumbler from your mouth. Does the sound become loud again?

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Solution:
We observed that sound becomes fainter than earlier when we try to suck air. But when we remove
tumbler from our mouth the sound again becomes loud. Thus, sound needs a medium to travel.

Activity 8 (NCERT Textbook, Page 162)

Take a bucket or a bathtub. Fill it with clean water.
Take a small bell in one hand. Shake this bell inside the water to produce sound. Make sure that the bell
does not touch the body of the bucket or the tub. Place your ear gently on the water surface (Fig. 13.8).
Can you hear the sound of the bell? Does it indicate that sound can travel through liquids?

Solution:
We can hear the sound of the bell which indicates that sound can travel through liquids.

Activity 9 (NCERT Textbook, Page 162)

Take a metre scale ora long metal rod and hold its one end to your ear. Ask your friend to gently scratch
or tap at the other end of the scale (Fig. 13.9).
Can you hear the sound of the scratching? Ask your friends around you if they were able to hear the
same sound?

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Solution:
Yes, we find that we can hear the sound of the scratch. But, the people standing around us cannot hear
the same sound or we can say that it is limping not audible to them.

Activity 10 (NCERT Textbook, Page 163)

Take a plastic or tin can. Cut its ends. Stretch a piece of rubber balloon across one end of the can and
fasten it with a rubber band. Put four or five grains of dry cereal on the stretched rubber. Now ask your
friend to speak”Hurrey, Hurrey”from the open end (Fig. 13.10). Observe what happens to the grain. Why
do the grain jump up and down?

Solution:
The grain jump up and down because of the vibration caused underneath the stretched rubber. Thus
when sound waves fall on the eardrum, it starts vibrating back and forth rapidly.

Activity 11 (NCERT Textbook, Page 164-165)

Take a metallic tumbler and a tablespoon. Strike the tablespoon gently at the brim of the tumbler. Hear
the sound produced. Now bang the spoon on the tumbler and hear the sound produced again. Is the
sound louder when the tumbler is struck hard?
Now suspend a small thermocol ball touching the rim of the tumbler (Fig. 13.11). Vibrate the tumbler by
striking it. See how far the ball is displaced. The displacement of the ball is a measure of the amplitude of
vibration of the tumbler.

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Now, strike the tumbler gently and then with some force. Compare the amplitudes of vibrations of the
tumbler in the two cases. In which case is the amplitude larger?

Solution:
The sound produced is louder when the tumbler is struck hard. The amplitude of vibration of the tumbler
is larger when the glass is struck hard. Thus, the loudness of sound depends upon the amplitude of
vibration.

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