Physics

Singing this Note is IMPOSSIBLE!

Try to sing the impossible note! Singers try to sing into a pipe, and find certain notes are impossible to sing, even for professionals. WHY?!
You can learn more about CuriosityStream at https://curiositystream.com/physicsgirl

Surprise YouTube education guests:
Grant Sanderson from 3blue1brown at 0:50
Derek Muller Veritasium at 1:19

This edition of the Physics Girl Everyday Mysteries series is a physics experiment uses a quirk of the voice and your vocal cords. Try it at home!

Prof Joe Wolfe’s acoustics website: http://newt.phys.unsw.edu.au/music/
Intro chapter on the voice: http://www.animations.physics.unsw.edu.au/waves-sound/human-sound/index.html
Wade et al paper on soprano singing through resonances: https://asa.scitation.org/doi/abs/10.1121/2.0000354

More on vocal tract resonances: http://newt.phys.unsw.edu.au/jw/soprane.html
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15532674

More facts: Most objects have a number of different resonant frequencies. The first resonance of the pipe were were using was around 70 Hz, which was lower than any of us could sing. A bass singer could hit that note, but were were singing in the range of the second and third resonances of the pipe.

No longer compiling your pipe singing submissions, but feel free to tweet me your attempts! @thephysicsgirl

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Creator: Dianna Cowern
Editor: Levi Butner
Research: Imogen Ashford

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