Physical Science

by Timothy Sandow

Genre Comprehension Skill Text Features Science Content

Nonfiction Compare and Captions Sound

Contrast Labels
Diagram
Glossary

Scott Foresman Science 3.14

ISBN 0-328-13847-9

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Vocabulary What did you learn?
Sound
compression wave 1. How is sound made?
by Timothy Sandow
pitch 2. Describe the two ways stringed instruments
are played.
vibration
3. Explain how your ears help you hear.

4. In this book you have read

about vocal cords and the pitch of your voice.
Write to explain how their relationship works.
Use details from the book.

5. Compare and Contrast How do people

make sounds? How do animals make sounds?
Compare and contrast the ways people and
animals make sounds.

Illustrations: 7, 14 Jeff Mangiat

Photographs: Every effort has been made to secure permission and provide appropriate credit for
photographic material. The publisher deeply regrets any omission and pledges to correct errors called to its
attention in subsequent editions. Unless otherwise acknowledged, all photographs are the property of Scott
Foresman, a division of Pearson Education. Photo locators denoted as follows: Top (T), Center (C), Bottom
(B), Left (L), Right (R) Background (Bkgd)
Opener: Jake Rajs/Getty Images; Title Page: DK Images; Lynn Stone/Index Stock Imagery; 2
Joseph Sohm/ChromoSohm Inc./Corbis; 4 (CL, BR) DK Images; 5 Getty Images; 6 Getty Images,
8 Getty Images; 9 (CL, CC, BL) Getty Images; 11 Robert Brenner/PhotoEdit; 12 P. Freytag/Zefa/
Masterfile Corporation; 13 Scott Tysick/Masterfile Corporation; 15 (CL) Mark Tomalty/Masterfile
Corporation, (CC) Christiana Carvalho-Frank Lane Picture Agency/Corbis, (BR) DK Images, (BL)
Stone/Getty Images

ISBN: 0-328-13847-9

Copyright Pearson Education, Inc.

All Rights Reserved. Printed in the United States of America. This publication is
protected by Copyright and permission should be obtained from the publisher prior
to any prohibited reproduction, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission in any
form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or likewise. For
information regarding permissions, write to: Permissions Department, Scott Foresman,
1900 East Lake Avenue, Glenview, Illinois 60025.

3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 V010 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05
 Sounds are everywhere. Some sounds you hear
What causes sounds? may hurt your ears. You may like other sounds. Each
Take a walk in the city. Cities are noisy. Car horns
sound you hear is different. Sounds are also alike in
honk. Buses and garbage trucks roar by. People talk
some ways.
on the street. It is much quieter in the country. Birds
chirp. Cows moo. Water trickles in a creek.

Noisemakers are sometimes

used on New Years Eve.
Do you like the sounds they
make?

2 3
The Causes of Sound
Sound happens when matter moves back and forth
very quickly. This movement is called a vibration.
There must be movement to make sound.
The instruments pictured make sounds. They can
make high sounds. They can make low sounds. Pitch
is how high or low a sound is. Objects that vibrate
slowly make a low-pitched sound. Objects that vibrate
quickly make sounds that have a higher pitch.
You must hit or shake
a tambourine to make
a sound.
These drums are different shapes
and sizes. Each one makes a
sound with a different pitch
when struck.
4 5
Hitting or Plucking to Make Sound
Some instruments make sounds when you hit them.
They are called percussion instruments. Drums are
percussion instruments. Drums are played with rubber
hammers, wooden sticks, brushes, or your hands. If
you tap a drum lightly, you hear a soft sound. Hitting
the drum harder makes a stronger vibration. This
makes a louder sound.
The blocks on this
instrument vibrate
when they are hit with
a rubber hammer.
 Stringed instruments are played in two ways. You
can pluck the strings. Or you can rub a bow across
them. Both ways make sounds. The strings are
different sizes. They can be long or short and thick
or thin. Some are stretched tighter than others. Long,
thick strings make a lower-pitched sound. Short,
thin, tight strings make faster vibrations. They make
higher-pitched sounds.
Have you ever heard a
harp before? The strings
of this harp must be
plucked to vibrate.
6 7
Using Air to Make Sound
The sound of your voice is made by vibrations in
your windpipes. When air from your lungs passes
between your vocal cords, they vibrate. You can speak
and sing because your vocal cords vibrate. When you
speak, your cords tighten. The tighter they get, the
higher the pitch of your voice.
Your vocal cords are
two pairs of thin tissue
in your windpipe.
 A wind instruments sound comes from vibrating air
inside it. Blow into a trumpet. Your lips vibrate against
the mouthpiece as you blow. This makes the air inside
the trumpet vibrate. It also makes sound.
You can change the pitch of the trumpets sound
in two ways. Change how your lips vibrate. Or
press on the valves of the trumpet. Pressing on the
valves changes how long the air column is inside
the trumpet.
Do you know how to
play a trumpet?
8 9
Some wind instruments use reeds. A reed is a thin
piece of wood. It is attached to the mouthpiece. When
a person blows on a reed, it vibrates. The vibration
makes the air inside the wind instrument vibrate.
The vibrating air makes a sound. If you press the keys
of the wind instrument, you can change the pitch of
the sound.
All three of these wind
instruments use reeds.
Clarinet
Saxophone
Harmonica

How does sound travel?
What are sound waves?
A bell rings. Its vibrations move in the air. Some air
particles are spread out. Others are squeezed together.
The particles take turns doing this. This allows the
bells vibrations to move between these particles. This
movement makes a wave called a compression
wave. Sound waves are compression waves.
Sound travels as
waves in the air.
Wavelength
10
Sound waves travel through matter. Some of the
particles that make up matter get squeezed. Other
particles are spread apart. The particles of matter take
turns being squeezed and spread out. The length of a
sound wave can be measured. We measure from the
center of one squeezed area to the center of the next.
Sound waves from a jackhammer have lots
of energy. If you were standing nearby, you
would hear a very loud sound. Sound waves
lose energy as they move away. Farther
away, the sound would not be as loud.
11
Sound and Matter
You hear sound only when it travels through matter.
Sound can travel through solids, liquids, and gases.
The speed of a sound wave is different in each kind
of matter.
The gases of air have particles that are far
apart. Sound travels slowly through gases. Liquid
particles are closer together. Sound travels more
quickly through a liquid than a gas. Solid particles
are closer together than gases or liquids. Sound travels
fastest through solids.
Echoes are sound waves that hit something and
bounce back. Scientists use sound waves and echoes
to study the ocean. A ship sends out a sound wave.
When the sound wave hits the bottom of the ocean, it
bounces back. Scientists measure how long the sound
wave takes to bounce back. Then they can figure out
how deep the ocean is at that spot.
Sound travels at about
1,530 meters per second
in water. Some whales
can make sounds that
can be heard up to 160
kilometers away.

Speed of Sound
Material Speed
(meters per second)
SolidSteel 5,200
LiquidSeawater 1,530
GasAir 340

Light travels faster than sound.

That is why you may see fireworks
before you hear them.

12 13
The Ear
We hear sounds with our ears. The outer ear catches
sound waves. The waves travel inside the ear to the
eardrum. When the sound waves hit the eardrum,
they make it vibrate. The vibrating eardrum makes
little bones vibrate. The little bones touch the shell-like
inner ear. It is filled with liquid and tiny hairs. The
vibrating little bones make the tiny hairs move. The
hairs are connected to nerves. The nerves carry signals
to the brain. The brain recognizes the signals. Then we
know what we are hearing.
Many animals have vocal cords like people do.
They make sounds when their vocal cords vibrate.
Dogs bark. Cows moo. Some animals make sounds
that do not use vocal cords. Bees and mosquitoes
make buzzing sounds when their wings vibrate.
Bats send out sounds people cannot hear. The
sounds are high-pitched and bounce off insects.
The sounds return to the bats ears. This helps the
bats find their food.
Many insects make sounds by
rubbing body parts together.

Little bones
Eardrum

Outer ear
Chimpanzees grunt,
bark, squeak, scream,
and even laugh.

Inner ear Zebras make sounds

by vibrating their vocal
cords, lips, and nostrils.

14 15
Vocabulary
Glossary What did you learn?
compressionwave
compression wave the wavelike movement of 1. How is sound made?
particles squeezing together
pitch 2. Describe the two ways stringed instruments
and spreading out again
are played.
vibration
pitch how high or low a sound is
3. Explain how your ears help you hear.
vibration the back-and-forth movement
of matter
4. In this book you have read
about vocal cords and the pitch of your voice.
Write to explain how their relationship works.
Use details from the book.

5. Compare and Contrast How do people

make sounds? How do animals make sounds?
Compare and contrast the ways people and
animals make sounds.

Illustrations: 7, 14 Jeff Mangiat

Photographs: Every effort has been made to secure permission and provide appropriate credit for
photographic material. The publisher deeply regrets any omission and pledges to correct errors called to its
attention in subsequent editions. Unless otherwise acknowledged, all photographs are the property of Scott
Foresman, a division of Pearson Education. Photo locators denoted as follows: Top (T), Center (C), Bottom
(B), Left (L), Right (R) Background (Bkgd)
Opener: Jake Rajs/Getty Images; Title Page: DK Images; Lynn Stone/Index Stock Imagery; 2
Joseph Sohm/ChromoSohm Inc./Corbis; 4 (CL, BR) DK Images; 5 Getty Images; 6 Getty Images,
8 Getty Images; 9 (CL, CC, BL) Getty Images; 11 Robert Brenner/PhotoEdit; 12 P. Freytag/Zefa/
Masterfile Corporation; 13 Scott Tysick/Masterfile Corporation; 15 (CL) Mark Tomalty/Masterfile
Corporation, (CC) Christiana Carvalho-Frank Lane Picture Agency/Corbis, (BR) DK Images, (BL)
Stone/Getty Images

ISBN: 0-328-13847-9

Copyright Pearson Education, Inc.

All Rights Reserved. Printed in the United States of America. This publication is
protected by Copyright and permission should be obtained from the publisher prior
to any prohibited reproduction, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission in any
form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or likewise. For
information regarding permissions, write to: Permissions Department, Scott Foresman,
1900 East Lake Avenue, Glenview, Illinois 60025.

3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 V010 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05
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