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Home Q & A Board Science-Related Homework Help Chemistry (Moderator: Laser_3)
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smokeypal23 smokeypal23
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11 years ago
While at an amusement park, you inhale helium from a balloon to make your voice higher pitched. A friend says that helium reacts with and tightens the vocal cords to make your voice have a higher pitch. Could he be correct? Why or why not?
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#1
11 years ago
He is not correct. The truth is that helium is lighter than air, and therefore the sound travels quicker in helium and thus produces the high-pitched sound.
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#2
11 years ago
Its actually the speed (and pitch for that matter) of the sound that varies with the molecular weight of the gas that you breathe in
and helium weighs less than dry air
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#3
11 years ago
It is not the vocal cords that are effected. Think about after the gas wears off.

The sound that your vocal cords make needs to go through the air for you to hear. The helium is very low density. velocity of the sound = frequency X wavelength. The velocity is effected changing the frequency which is the pitch.
wrote...
#4
11 years ago
No, he's not.  The reason is because the speed of sound in helium is way faster, because helium is thinner than air.  This causes the pitch of you vocal cords' resonant frequency to increase, and sound higher.

You can lower the pitch by inhaling a more dense gas as well.
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