Science

Sound

Sound Produced by Humans

Speak loudly for a while or sing a song, or buzz like a bee. Put your hand on your throat as shown in Fig. 13.8. Do you feel any vibrations? In humans, the sound is produced by the voice box or the larynx. Put your fingers on the throat and find a hard bump that seems to move when you swallow. This part of the body is known as the voice box. It is at the upper end of the windpipe. Two vocal cords, are stretched across the voice box or larynx in sudhi way that it leaves a narrow slit between them for the passage of air When the lungs 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. Let us see how the vocal cords function.