SO: DD-5

Your two vocal cords shape a V when they are fully open. They are anchored to your wildly-shaped cartilage Adam’s apple, your larynx. When you speak, your vocal cords close so they have a tiny gap. When the air from your lungs goes through them, this causes the cords to vibrate. This is what produces the basic sound of your voice. (See further down in the article if you need to.)

The white vocal cords have collagen proteins in them which makes them softer.

Your vocal cords have 3 complex layers. The amount of water in your vocal cords has a small effect on your voice. Scientists learned that it’s not the water in your vocal cords, but rather the fat in them that gives us different voices.

A few facts:

1. When the vocal cords are abducted, two hinge-like parts swing to the sides spreading the cords like a V. (See the diagram.)
2. Men have a bigger larynx (Adam’s apple) because their vocal cords are longer and they need the “extra reach” to open them fully. (Talk to parents if you need to get help here… Study the diagrams.)
3. You can see the wind pipe’s (the trachea) cartilage rings through the vocal cords.

The vocal cords first hit the middle of each other then the rest of the cord.

Scientists have learned that people who can project their voice well speak with an amazing 3000 vibrations a minute! Their brain can also change the shape of the pharynx to add power and beauty to their voice.(The pharynx is a 3” part of the throat beginning in the back of your mouth.)

The pharynx—a 3” part of your throat–is made up of four parts. Your brain can change the shape of these four parts to add beauty to your voice.

You have 8 thin caves in the bones of your face called sinuses. They give beauty and uniqueness to your voice. The two largest are the Max caves under your eyes. (Maxillary sinuses.) The frontal caves (Frontal sinuses) are under your cheeks.

The big maxillary (BIG MAX!) sinus caves are under your eyes in your cheeks. They are the largest of the fluid-filled caves in your bones.

Babies can cry for seven hours one day and keep right on the next. Babies’ vocal cords don’t have the great 3-layer construction that an adult’s do so they can flop around a whole lot more without injury.

Parts of the Grand Canyon are 18 miles across! There is a beautiful place to camp on your way down from the South rim called Pocahontas Gardens. (Check a map if you need to.

Some cicada insects have one of the most incredible behaviors on earth. Every 13 or 17 years, billions of the bugs emerge from the ground at the same time. They live underground all these years then suddenly come up! This wild timing ability is accomplished without calendars or clocks. Scientists who study timing like this are called Chronobiologists.

The thorax is the middle of the three segments of an insect. Scientists learned that cicadas have a large sound chamber in their abdomen.

Many larger speakers today work with plastic and magnets. Take a speaker apart and you’ll see the plastic and magnets. The plastic is part of the cone.

Most of the sounds that we hear are under 1,000 Hz vibrations a second. Bats and dolphins hear ultra-sound–sound too high for us to hear–and elephants hear infrasound–sound too low for us to hear.

Ultrasound waves from an ultrasound machine are reflected back differently to the machine according to what they reflect off. They will reflect differently off muscle, fat and bone.

Ultrasound machines have to send very high sound waves into the body of the person being examined. Piezoelectricity is involved in making these high sounds. A transducer is used ro send these sound waves out and to receive the reflected sound waves back.

Certain flowers like potato and tomato plants have a strange anther. Their pollen doesn’t just fall off the anther. A bumblebee grabs the flower with its legs and begins violently shaking to get the pollen.

Elk vocal cords have a similar size and weight of vocal cords as lions, yet their call is a low-pitched bugle sound.

The power-roar of lions is actually caused by how the vocal cords are designed–by the intensely complicated structure of the vocal cords. These vocal cords give the lions their distinct sound. The lion’s vocal cords are designed a little like a human baby’s. The cords have a good amount of fat that helps the cords to vibrate like they do. In a 90-second roaring session, it will roar about 50 times! Because of this, the cords use the airflow of the lion’s lungs so well that they can hit 214 decibels! This is 25 times as loud as a gas lawnmower!