A trombone has a variable length. When a musician blows into the mouthpiece and causes air in the tube of the horn to vibrate, the waves set up by the vibrations reflect back and forth in the horn to create standing waves. As the length of horn is made shorter, what happens to the frequency?

a) The frequency will increase or decrease depending on how hard the horn player blows.

b) The frequency will increase

c) The frequency will decrease

d) The frequency will increase or decrease depending on the diameter of the horn.

e) The frequency will remain same

The frequency increases with a shorter horn (Option B).

Explanation:

The length of the horn determines the distance along which the wave travels; simply called the wavelength. Therefore, a short horn tube will produce a short wavelength and vice versa.

Sound waves have various characteristics that define pitches in musical instruments and these characteristics are interdependent on each other.

in this case, the frequency and the frequency and the wavelength are related.

The relationship between the wavelength and its frequency is given as:

c = f λ

where 'c' is the speed of sound through the instrument; 'f ' is the frequency and 'λ' is the wavelength.

Let's assume that the speed at which the musician blows air into the mouthpiece remains constant, an increase in wavelength will cause a decrease in frequency. Conversely, as the tube of the horn becomes shorter the frequency increases.