Warbling Whistles Are Weird

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Bird water whistle's have a really interesting mechanism. I made a 2D transparent version so you could see what's going on inside. I also explain how whistles work. Including the kettle whistle.
CREDITS:
Air jet impinging on a wedge simulation by Philip Simons using Sjubb:
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[@SteveMould]

The Peruvian Whistling Vessel video should be out in a few weeks. Consider clicking the notification bell if you want to be sure to catch that one. The sponsor is Wondrium. Signup for your FREE trial here: ow.ly/O6AN30siJKg

[@elynmartinez4896]

👯

[@jmchez]

You just made me order a couple of expensive but beautiful, indigenous, handcrafted Peruvian whistling vessels. I didn't know they existed but I had to have one, I can believe how different the sounds can be when a master craftsman tunes them: kzbin.info/www/bejne/kKvSmn9trZppe9E

[@chappyhappy8483]

@9:54 I've always been told that the whistle that has a ball inside would stop working if that ball is broken/removed. Is that true?

[@sensualgoat3718]

one of your subscribers commented on nathanoakley1980's channel claiming that you can disprove flat earth. Can't wait to hear you try. good luck :)

[@andersmoore]

What would the whistle sound like with different viscosity liquids?

[@johningham1880]

Presumably, the type of bird that would sound most like a “warbling whistle” would be a warbler, surely?

[@kempshott]

I'd suggest curlew. kzbin.info/www/bejne/rWS4c3uVgsR_fc0

[@arnavranka4510]

Actually, they are quite similar to the calls of the Red Vented Bulbul and the Oriental Magpie-Robin.

[@Aetohatir]

A bird would probably say that it sounds nothing like them.

[@ReplicateReality]

@@Aetohatir if they could talk

[@transkryption]

*Bong Birds*

[@yahyahusainulhasan6910]

I love these 2D cut-outs, really makes the explanations more intuitive and easier to understand!

[@nadyaaffendy2614]

Agreed!

[@vaisakhkm783]

100% true.....

[@theradicalof1764]

I wonder ho many prototypes he made before he got them to make a sound 😁 I'm so amazed at his prototyping skills. I know it's KZbin magic and it take a long time to make these videos but he basically creates multiple great kids toy for all his vids. I wonder if he could monetize his 3d prints through patreon or something. Love the vids

[@rainboworange]

I even like the aestetics. like a puristic reduction.

[@KalebPeters99]

It's such a great way to demonstrate the principles. The attention to detail with the white background and coloured water is so clever.

[@psycoklown8461]

9 minutes in and you've explained 3 questions I've had my life. How do we whistle with our lips? The tea kettle. How does blowing a blade of grass work? Holding a blade of grass in the wedge of your thumbs.. The wedge method. And how do birds whistle, if they don't have similar equipment as us? The bird whistle is their belly. Madness

[@GadgetAddict]

You're a genius for coming up with these clear 2D representations.

[@tj1990]

hes a genius in general lol.

[@a_diamond]

Agreed 😊

[@danielreed5199]

If you think he is a genius then you should see my 1D versions but you can't, if you can see my point which you can't for the same reasons.

[@andrypuladejesus8619]

@@danielreed5199 lol

[@tuesday5457]

yoo iam the 1000th like

[@Olodus]

I was about to ask Steve how a normal human whistle works, but then I got scared he would make a 2D transparent version of me!

[@NonTwinBrothers]

Plot twist: Mould is actually a 4-dimensional being and sees inside of us all the time

[@kevinwells9751]

if I'm not mistaken it's a lot like the kettle whistle. People only think about your lips doing the whistling, but that isn't really true, you also have to restrict the air in the back of your mouth by raising your tongue up close to your soft palate (if you don't believe me try whistling with your tongue relaxed. Those two holes are like the two holes in the kettle. Then you pair that with using your whole mouth as a resonance chamber and you can control pitch and timbre

[@Theutcast]

@@kevinwells9751 It's almost seems like a mix between the kettle and the wedge. There are the two holes with the concave area inside of the mouth, but your tongue also makes a wedge that pushes the air though. I am a beatboxer so having an understanding of sounds is very important but whistling has always been the coolest. There are so many different types of whistle a human can make.

[@edwardlane1255]

@@kevinwells9751 weird - I can't whistle with my tongue up (yet - obviously that's now something i'll need to practise) - the tip of my tongue is touching the bottom of my mouth (somewhere behind the ridge at the base of my gums) when I whistle

[@depressoespresso5904]

@@kevinwells9751 omg i never knew how to whistle this is so helpful thx u

[@InfectiousWellness]

I have a whole new found appreciation for whistles now. My son LOVED learning about this and so did I! My son was using his whistle while watching this and got so excited when you finally addressed his sports whistle. Love how even the simplest things have an element of physics to them

[@inspiringengineer]

4:19 - Boyoyoyoying! :D

[@Tehn00bA]

There's also the scary aztec death whistle that makes a screaming sound, along with other whistles (like hunting ones)

[@graysonfox4159]

Somewhere, a Firbolg druid in a park just smiled.

[@christianlee1151]

Yes i have a deth wisle

[@ammakko]

Today I learned

[@froggman66]

There’s also ball whistles (aka the coach whistles)

[@greatestaxolotl4933]

@@graysonfox4159 I was just thinking of that!

[@MattRose30000]

6:00 reminded me of the "grass whistle" where you blow on a blade of grass that you hold tightly between your thumbs. Probably works the same way.

[@hart-of-gold]

I think in the case of a grass or gumleaf whistle the edge flutters and changes the pitch.

[@vangildermichael1767]

whistling with a blade of grass, probably can be explained by these ideas. yup, agreed. But now, how about whistling with two fingers in your mouth. That don't seem to fit any logic he explored.

[@jpe1]

I had a similar thought and came to the comments looking for this discussion. One consideration: when whistling over a blade of grass, the tension in the blade directly controls the pitch, so presumably the frequency of the flapping of the blade changes the frequency of the whistle.

[@vangildermichael1767]

​@@jpe1 pretty cool catch. Thinking about the whole "audio" thing, I should have at least noticed that. But, I didn't (3:00am I guess). But, maybe you play a woodwind instrument? The position and tight you put on your reed make a LOT of difference. That one little thing can make for a bad experience, and turn somebody off playing entirely. forever. Like, "I can't do this". Pitch (as you mentioned) but also (response time), both are influenced dramatically with that one attribute you bring up. Tension.

[@jpe1]

@@vangildermichael1767 no, I don’t play a woodwind, but I am “skillful” at whistling through grass. (Is it really a skill? More like a way of annoying people around me😉)

[@stratifacations8377]

I love how this video was barely even about the warbling whistle

[@peggyfillmore1971]

I had one of these as a kid in the 70s I always wondered about these... I love the fact that you explain it easy enough for people like me to understand ..and yet don't dumb it down for more intelligent people. Sign of a good teacher .♥️♥️

[@anemoiacApache]

Steve breaking out into a giggle at "corrogaphone" is hilarious.

[@nerfherder4284]

I giggled at him saying worlydoodle 😂

[@matthewbartsh9167]

It's "corrugaphone". Kind of obvious, since it's "corrugated", and not "corrogated", don't you think?

[@AzureFlash]

Ring ring ring ring ring ring ring CORRUGAPHONE! Doot doo dee doo dee doo (Kinda showing my age with this reference :P)

[@Dark0neone]

@@AzureFlash Oh man... I used to annoy everyone with that song 15 years ago.

[@iamchris7491]

@@matthewbartsh9167 its a KZbin comment, its not that serious

[@furzkram]

Like a "normal" whistle, the second / outer hole on the kettle whistle has a wedge that is hit by the air stream - this edge goes all around in a circle.

[@DemiImp]

Good observation. After watching the whole video, that almost seems obvious.

[@jakefriesenjake]

I need to make a kettle whistle for my wife's 2015 mustang 5.0 gt. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

[@yschroder]

This would mean it is basically a donut shaped sports whistle, right?

[@JamieJamez]

@@jakefriesenjake Tha whistles go WOOO

[@furzkram]

@@yschroder a donut shaped whistle. There's no thrill.

[@sariya74]

I remember seeing these warbling whistles everywhere on markets in my home town. I absolutely love these things

[@douglaschester2097]

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[@AtomicShrimp]

Fascinating dive into the workings and fluid dynamics. Really enjoyed that. Can you use this knowledge to design an entirely novel kind of whistle, I am wondering...

[@mekkthemighty1962]

probably, you could try to couple multiple chambers of different sizes that all blow from a singular source of air flow, would be interesting to see which tones come out at different air flow speeds, would one chamber dominate the tone? or would they mesh? Or what if all the exited air from each chamber were to be directed into eachother, would we get a secondary tone?

[@EmronWalker]

@@mekkthemighty1962 look up World’s best Whistler. I think it’s a Wired video… about 10 mins in length. Pretty incredible whistle that man has.

[@xenontesla122]

@@mekkthemighty1962 There's actually a type of whistle used in samba music that's close the the first thing you mentioned. It has one wedge that leads to multiple chambers with holes so it can make different tones.

[@MrNikolidas]

You can make your own whistle with your hands by cupping them together to make a cavity and blowing on the knuckles of your thumbs. Takes a bit of practice and patience.

[@chloepeifly]

@String instruments SUCK thinking the same thing! love seeing him in the wild on youtube :)

[@xilm22]

my 22 years of curiosity of how a whistle works finally cured

[@WanderTheNomad]

@Dave Smith Probably your cheeks clapping back and forth as gas separates them and they want to come back together. I'd imagine a silent fart would only have your cheeks opening once and releasing all at once instead of alternating between open and closed.

[@PhillipRajcany]

What a great explanation of whistles, I've wondered about this my whole life, and describing the effect with visuals really brought it to life for me.

[@doomakarn]

A whirly tube is just a Helmholtz resonator. As it spins around, the air passes over the hole; but air does not travel throughout. Theoretically you could just attach a string to a bottle and swing it around and get the same noise as a whirly tube.

[@Queer_Nerd_For_Human_Justice]

Ohhhhhhhh, I've done that! I know what you mean! It's not the same noise tho, it's just another mechanism to get bottle blowing timbre.

[@0Fidel0]

There is a whole lot of literature about airflow an whistles in the organ building section, even cutaway slow-mo smoke airflow pictures on how the air curls and bends when hitting the organs flutes. Quite fun to watch and definitely interesting. Thx for your work, I really do enjoy your videos!

[@KalebPeters99]

Ooh that would be a really interesting test! I wonder if Steve vapes? 😆😆

[@thelogician3845]

Where can I find it?

[@TheMetalKiwi]

I literally never saw one of these before until today. I was visiting a museum gift shop with my fiancee and we saw a cute little purple jug and decided to buy it for a friend of ours as a souvenir, and then the guy who works at the museum goes: "Do you know what this is?" and proceeds to show us how to work it. We were blown away, like a couple of kids! Not 6 hours later, I come home to this gem of a video. 😁

[@euchreairgaming]

2:44 Another interesting bit is that many american WWII fighter planes make a whistling sound while they're in tight turns. This is the exact same effect as the corrogaphone as air is passing over the barrels of the M2 Browning 50. Cal guns.

[@peterk.4266]

Dude, you`re my man. I`m exactly like you, always trying to understand those seemingly mundane things, which are not mundane whatsoever, they are incredibly complex and beautiful. I`m a science teacher by the way, and I absolutely appreciate all the see through devices you put together. ( I have built a few myself in the past!) Thank you for this channel.

[@covanentsbane]

This honestly makes whistling with just your lips that much more impressive to me. We can just intuitively create different shaped cavities to produce different tones without even thinking about it, just adjusting the shape based on our ear and muscle memory.

[@jsowiki6142]

theres a thing called double whistling. There are two variations, the first is using your tongue as a divider to cause two distinct cavities for a whistle to appear. The second variation is a standard whistle, but flapping your tongue in a way that creates a secondary tone, though I think the later is caused by harmonics rather than a whistle mechanic. There is also very unique whistles created by the beatboxers, Helium, D-Koy, Milky, and Zekka. Those whistles are pretty much impossible for me to explain lmao.

[@frostjune6072]

you should do a video about how boomerangs return, i understand they create lift through wings but what makes them lift at the front only to turn around

[@NigelMelanisticSmith]

That's a good question, I always just kinda accepted Boomerangs lol

[@EarsoftheWolf]

I would love to understand them, as well as learning about their... Aborigins

[@sweeflyboy]

I'm pretty sure it's because the advancing blade has a higher speed relative to the air than the retreating blade. Just guessing tho

[@legyengeza4768]

A boomerang is not symmetrical, its a propeller which is bent a bit. Both the sides generate lift at the samr direction if rotated.

[@Mr_Astro-Vera]

Smarter every day -_-

[@ThatOneKitsune]

1:09 man really said ⤵️⤴️

[@ThreadedNail]

Thanks for this great explanation! I was wanting to make a whistle out of an antler and I found tutorials but nothing explaining how it works. This video helped so much.

[@JeromeDemers]

I 3D printed one for my kids and they love it. Really bad idea btw. They whistle in the cars and spill water everywhere 😂

[@bubbles17ec]

they make candy whistles in japan and korea, they’re shaped like hollow life savers, and whistle when you blow into them. great, cuz most kids can’t resist eating them, so they end fairly quickly

[@thesauce1682]

cool parenting

[@TheSpiffyNeoStar]

I think the corrogaphone is actually the same as the bottle, just without a bottom. Both are air moving across an opening of a cylinder. You could cap one end of the corrogaphone and it should drop in pitch by an octave.

[@SteveMould]

Apparently it doesn't work unless it's corrugated!

[@JimC]

No, it depends on the airflow through the tube. The whirling end has lower pressure, causing the airflow. Also, as you whirl the tube faster, the pitch jumps to the next harmonic.

[@TheSpiffyNeoStar]

@@SteveMould really??? I'll have to try by spinning a non-corrugated tube and see. I always thought the flared end was the important bit.

[@FinetalPies]

I've definitely gotten some good wooshy whistles out of swinging PVC pipe around like a sword, so the jug similarity makes sense to me. Not sure what different mechanism a corrogaphone could have

[@YiannisANO1911]

@@SteveMould spoilers!

[@SICresinwrks]

Gotta love the 2d versions, they are definitely a great help explaining things. This is a neat whistle for sure

[@brushrolla8379]

I got one of those in China town ten years ago. We had no idea what it was; it sounded plain but looked cute. Was in my closet and I almost gave it away-- then today your video came up completely random. The brown whistle looked like mine but it is white porcelain and coloured at the wings/crest in blue and pink. This is so cool, it made the sound crisp and clear!! Wow!! I'm going to keep it.

[@haloKINGSstudios]

I received one of those bird whistles at the beginning as a gift. I just assumed it was a poorly made whistle. Now I know to fill it with water. Thanks! :)

[@VVVVV99611]

Git gud

[@sandraswan9008]

@@VVVVV99611 ?

[@PhantomGato-v-]

@@sandraswan9008 just a salty person. Dont mind them.

[@zappyapp]

@@PhantomGato-v- how's that salty though

[@PhantomGato-v-]

@@zappyapp It was uncalled for and mostly git gud is used as an insult

[@resurgam_b7]

Wow, I have never actually had whistles explained to me before. I just kind of intuited that the shape of the whistle part is important to make noise and the size of the body or cavity usually determines the pitch but I never investigated the mechanisms for why that is the case. It's fascinating that such "simple" devices can function by such a wide range of mechanisms and that even though they are quite distinct from each other, they all boil down to interrupting a stream of air in repetitive but semi-random patterns.

[@quadrupleheart]

By 7:50 I had completely forgotten this video was about warbling whistles in the first place and was very content to just learn about how whistles worked in general! Very well made video!

[@australiannie822]

I've had a ceramic one of these since I was 11 years old, bought from a market in Hobart Tasmania. I've always wondered how it worked, thank you! 🐦

[@chrishakoda008]

I tried designing a whistle before. Failed miserably. Read a couple papers, tried a multi-physics simulation, could not get the desired behavior. What I did find out from failing matches what Mr. Mould said, the turbulence generates a wide band of frequencies (via pressure field disturbances), which changes depending on the qualities of the turbulence. However, this sound is too quiet, but when paired with a resonator (e.g., the green tube that's open on either end counts as a resonator), the frequencies that the resonator resonates with will be amplified and we hear the whistle. My guess is that all whistles are designed differently because turbulent flow is a pain to control (and 3D geometry can all sorts of crazy resonances), let alone turbulent flow generated from the blowing of people who are young/old and different lung capacities. As a result, most whistles aren't engineered so much as they are discovered by mistake or trial-and-error. Some people in the comments mention that musical organs are a great place to start if you want to learn more, which I totally agree with. The line between whistles and instruments is blurry (e.g., ocarina), but I found classical instruments to be far more "engineered" and easier to understand. I always found whistles to be cool because of the sheer variety and wackiness.

[@vigilantcosmicpenguin8721]

Out of curiosity, any particular reason you tried designing a whistle?

[@wordzmyth]

That makes sense. We can only game chaos by educated accident. Keeps life interesting

[@WujuStyler]

I've made some flutes in the style of Native american flutes which use a wedge design and a cylinder with holes and to be honest it is so interesting, but getting everything right is such a pain as well. I have now planted bamboo back home for more flutes down the line

[@thelogician3845]

@@WujuStyler ikr. As if the length of the tube isn't enough,even the diameters of the holes play a big role in the pitch.

[@JohnyByrne]

The BIC biro cap can act as a whistle. It has a single hole but has an interesting shape like a rocket engine. Produces a super high pitched tone!

[@EarsoftheWolf]

And when someone in your class has been doing that right behind you for 20 minutes solid, you can take it off them and stab them with it. A technological marvel

[@SteveMould]

Very good point!

[@EnthalpyAndEntropy]

First, where's the second reply? All I see is Steve's. Second, still works the same. The only thing that is different in all of these whistles is what the resonance chamber is and what is causing or helping the oscillations, maybe the number and types of symmetry available for analysis if you want to go that far.

[@cassandra2860]

@@EnthalpyAndEntropy replies from shadowbanned users are counted but not shown.

[@EnthalpyAndEntropy]

@@cassandra2860 oh, youtube does shadowbans like reddit and twitter, eh? It saddens me tremendously how myopic and unfathomably stupid people can be, especially ones with a modicum of power. I'm curious what they said. If it was a spamming bot, so be it. If it's someone who says allegedly controversial stuff, what could they have said here and how could it hurt anyone?

[@SummerAlleriaWindrunner]

This guy has an amazing personality. Very charismatic and the right amount of energy.

[@marklanghirt2099]

Nice video! I just wanted to say (as you alluded to) you could view all of these whistles as variations of Helmholtz resonators with various shaped cavities and holes. If we adopt the low frequency lumped-element model for these, then a cavity acts as a gas spring and the hole has a column of air that acts like an inertial mass (inertance). The spring acts like a high-pass filter and shows up as a zeroth-order derivative term in the ODE. The column of air acts like a low-pass filter and shows up as the second-order derivative in the ODE. Putting those together we get an acoustic resonance from our makeshift bandpass filter, and this is directly analogous to inductor-capacitor circuits or the simple-harmonic-oscillator. This is obviously oversimplified but I think it provides great physical intuition about what is going on.

[@jerrys.9895]

Adults everywhere: *Exists* Steve: So I started wondering how this everyday thing works, and it's not as simple as you think. Adults everywhere: No way, I thought we settled this when I was like eight. Steve: *Accidentally creates an experimental quagmire for practical scientists everywhere*

[@anchoviesonnachos7074]

giggity

[@azlaticamusic]

@@anchoviesonnachos7074 man of culture

[@andriypredmyrskyy7791]

It's taking you an inhuman amount of willpower to avoid the word "fipple hole". The "standard whistle" is called a fipple.

[@vigilantcosmicpenguin8721]

I feel so much happier now that I know the word "fipple."

[@EleanorPeterson]

Alas, KZbin has uppity censorship algorithms that will seek out and destroy all kinds of perfectly normal, innocent words, especially those used in British English. I used to play a fipple flute. Very... er... ethnic. Windswept. Celtic, even. I don't know the exact origin of the word, but I've had numerous Comments deleted or even deemed 'unpostable' over the years for using common English terms that clearly outraged pious Merkin sensibilities. (Whoops.🤭 Pubic wig alert...)

[@ImNotGam]

I am a nerd and a hockey official, which means I automatically love videos about whistling. So glad you added the pea whistle I was so curious how it worked.

[@josefrogoschewsky6458]

I've always wondered about whistles, but never have it much thought. Rather fascinating. Great episode!

[@edzejandehaan9265]

The shepherd whistle used in stockdog training is quite interesting too.

[@_fedmar_]

"In other words, boioioing." -Steve Mould, 2022

[@ToxicLemonsyeah]

i had some of those as a kid!! one of my old gramdmas that passed away when i was younger made me one after if gotten a couple from a school fair and said i liked them a lot (she made me blankets too, one of which i still use today)

[@Whenuknow]

I made a KZbin video in 2019 where I was recreating bird songs with a synthesizer, I had to use a lot of FM (frequency modulation) to get the right sound, now I understand why! Haha I love this channel

[@KX36]

jaguar whistles are pretty interesting too, especially when played by someone who actually knows what they're doing (i.e. the hawkers at mexican tourist spots)

[@merelii13]

I had to look this up, but it was totally Worth it, that's sound so cool!

[@mymo_in_Bb]

Fun fact that you certainly will find useful: That wedge shape that produces the sound (that can be found on edge-blown aerophones such as the recorder, pennywhistle, slide whistle, sports whistle or indeed the warbling whistle), is called a fipple. It's a fun word. Josh Plotner goes more in depth in his video "Everything is a flute."

[@sanjayprajapati6597]

Your work is comprehensively detailed and overarching.💮👍

[@Alexvenlo]

After this video I don't know much about whistles because I was fascinated by the way you approach things.

[@alvaropalacios8291]

love the clear excitement all throughout the video! that's a true scientist right there.

[@xenontesla122]

Fun fact, the word for the regular whistle type is sometimes called a *'fipple'* . I wonder how well those other types of whistles work on wind instruments with holes. I might try 3D printing some and see what happens.

[@mymo_in_Bb]

Fipple gang!

[@keepermovin5906]

The ocarina uses a fipple so you might want to look into that.

[@capuchinosofia4771]

aaaaa i love this video. Your explanations are lovely :D they made me understand how the different types of human whistling work: one by making only the tonge move, another by moving only your lips, and another one by moving both to make the pitch u want.

[@potatothistle]

great video! thanks Steve. I'm guessing this is similar to how woodwind instruments work. Opening and closing holes to change the resistance and geometry of air in the tube. Enjoying this series of sound objects!

[@cammyT]

I’d love to see a follow up video explaining how actual birds make their “whistles” (or calls), as well as how humans whistling with just our mouths works

[@scottb9997]

Vocal chords lung tongue

[@PhantomGato-v-]

@@scottb9997 haha *no* Human whistling is done without the tongue OR the vocal cords, but rather with our lips i think. Lungs ia right though.

[@thelogician3845]

I believe human whistling works like this: When air flows through a large opening and is then forced through a smaller one,some of the air bounces around inside the container eventually affecting the pressure at the smaller aperture periodically. This periodic rise and drop in pressure generates sound .When we blow out the opening at the back of the mouth is the larger aperture and the small hole formed by the lips is the smaller aperture.The air blows out,gets bounced around and comes out in a series of pressure regions to form sound.

[@PhantomGato-v-]

@@thelogician3845 that's a good explanation

[@thelogician3845]

@@PhantomGato-v- kzbin.info/www/bejne/h5apmauKhdCDbc0 This doesnt show the air currents but we'll,you can imagine them.

[@Pyriphlegeton]

First of all: thank you for making me understand all these fascinating things Secondly: you seem like such a likeable guy. Seriously, it's contagious how happy you are about little whistles :)

[@Emma_The_H0ppin_H00ligan]

Oh hey i haven't thought about this kind of whistle for a pretty long time, i remember me and my siblings each getting one of these at the county fair when i was around 3 or 4 years old and i absolutely loved it

[@idlehour]

Steve. Thanks for making rheee videos. Its time, work, effort. Especially this type of content. Thank you. Much respect and appreciation! I love videos like this and the great personality and attitude you put into everything. Thank you.

[@ihmejakki2731]

The local after-bar pizzeria has these T-shaped water bottle caps with holes on both sides, and when you pour water from one hole it makes a bird chirping sound from the other one. It's been the wonder of many friday nights, now I know how they work!

[@tandemcart1234]

I am so glad I found this channel. Every video there is at least one little nugget on information that solves a little mystery in my brain. Thanks so much for the amazingly well presented information. You always manage to go from ground level, to complex theory and take the audience with you the whole way. Never boring and never too complex

[@diran0]

Thanks for the video, the warbling whistle made a great gift for my bird-loving mom

[@lilithmoore5438]

Thank you so much for these videos, I also LOVE a good analogy, and the water whistle at 10:20 really demonstrates the power of analogies. After having made a couple analogous, transparent, hydrodynamic models that we can dissect, we can picture in our minds how that whistle probably works, and make educated guesses based on the sound and geometry of previous models that we've seen in action and factually understand the mechanism in motion! (Knowing written theories is great and all, but until I've seen a black hole merger waveform, or a 2d cut-away of a physical model, I can never really be sure if that's how the universe actually works, or how it's been interpreted as working)

[@mygreenfroggy]

When I was a kid my mom had an oversize plastic sports whistle that she would blow to call us home. We had a grade school across the street from our house, large brick building and school yard that we played on. We couldn't hear her (dad could whistle quite loudly) but we could definitely hear the plastic whistle on the other side of the building.

[@bc8010]

The bird looks like it's chocolate in the thumbnail

[@PinetreeAustralia]

I thought ☠️☠️

[@RilB243-average_ppt_fan-]

It does

[@drdeath68]

1:58 thats what he said

[@pagolchagol22]

Bro is so high and happy to share his curiosity. Love it

[@sparkyprojects]

The wedge is a 'languid', the kettle whisle works the same as the ref whistle, exceot that the languid is a tube, note the front disc hole is turned inwards to make the languid. The space between the discs is the resonant chamber A flute with an open end will be twice the frequency of the same flute with a blocked end.

[@EnthalpyAndEntropy]

This! I came here to say they're all fundamentally the same. The "types" are superficial. It's all resonance and conservation of momentum, i.e., basic fluid dynamics.

[@nialltracey2599]

Still, the fipple is a very different construction from the kettle whistle. Really wish Steve had taken the time to find out what a fipple was called, though.

[@EnthalpyAndEntropy]

@@nialltracey2599 still? That's nice fipple is a term but what are you implying with the construction stuff? Construction just changes the frequencies, amplitudes, and types of symmetry if you want to model the fluid dynamics.

[@johnswn255]

Surely the air in the cavity of the "standard" whistle in the video is not "feeding back" to the input air stream. It is all just resonance. Otherwise an open ended flute/tin whistle would not work: it would not feedback to the input stream

[@EnthalpyAndEntropy]

@@johnswn255 look up turbulence or kolmogorov eddies.

[@Moonwards1]

I don’t think I’ve ever thought about how a whistle works before But now I’ve found out it’s actually very interesting

[@VegaHawk769]

I've thought about it but not this deeply before

[@SpookyKabuki2.0]

Weird and fascinating! Glad I happened upon this channel. Science behind it is really cool.

[@PixelLulu]

Always love the enthusiasm of your posts

[@AJD...]

6:25 Yes, an audible sound is louder than an inaudible sound. Good job Steve 😁

[@degiguess]

Loudness and audibility are not the same thing. Loudness is the amplitude of the frequency which can be high even if the frequency itself can't be picked up by human ears.

[@AJD...]

@Dave Smith obviously. But this video and the whistles in it are for humans. Plus he said "audible" without mentioning audible to whom. So of course it's for humans

[@Shadfillet]

How would using a liquid with a different viscosity affect the whistle's function? Would it still work with something like honey?

[@rafqueraf]

Less changing

[@Wulthrin]

as raf says, the frequency of the warble will change. honey would sound like the whistle was in slow motion i reckon

[@OdinSonnah]

This is just speculation, but I think with honey you'd have to blow quite hard at first, to form the initial channel through the liquid, but after that it wouldn't collapse quickly enough for any bubbling effect to occur. So once you'd broken the surface it would stabilize, and you'd get one steady note, without any warbling at all. With the air just flowing through the channel you'd already created.

[@Queer_Nerd_For_Human_Justice]

I would start with something closer to water first, like vinegar or milk

[@emmimiller3677]

All that, and it would be a nightmare to clean out.

[@milkoohun]

omg, ive been waiting for this video since i found your channel !! this is amazing

[@burada8993]

You are great. Thank you for the good quality content !

[@Gregemio]

0:01 - Yo Steve, Make this your permanent intro!!!!!

[@lodimas]

Would be very interested to see the interaction with using a more viscous liquid in the whistle!

[@clonefighter1996]

10:29 "I reckon that video will be out in, maybe, like, 3 weeks? 4 weeks?" Two months.

[@ironcladexo]

The corrugaphone works just like blowing on the bottle. Instead of blowing over the hole, the tube moves its hole over static air giving us the same effect. Great video and explanations!

[@GeorgePlaten]

Lovely to see how much joy Steve gets from something so simple as playing with whistles.

[@karlkastor]

Now I want an explanation of the Aztec "death whistle" 4:08 Why does a stream of air have momentum? The particles in the stream, sure, but their momentum is mostly forward and maybe slightly up. But if the airstream is fast enough, most particles with some upward momentum will already have moved forward when the airstream is in the middle. So there would be only a tiny bit of momentum at high flow rates. Or am I missing something here? Edit: Ohh, my point just means that the faster the airstream, the higher the frequency or otherwise there would be no oscillation as the particles move away too fast.

[@revimfadli4666]

Yesss, 2d death whistle cut out would be great

[@SenselessUsername]

Had the same question on the Aztec whistle... Claire Chaise suddenly played one, somewhere in the middle of Liza Lim's Sex Magic. Unsettling to say the least. But then before that she played the ocarina --- and those come with in many varieties which I'd like to understand the geometries of, too!

[@RaviAluganti]

A beautiful explanation and humble enough to agree that there are other factors that are working, which is true!!

[@Marco_Onyxheart]

I have a collection of helmholtz resonator flutes in the form of various ocarinas. Their frequency is determined by the speed of the airflow, total surface area of the holes, and volume of air inside the resonator. Which is quite a number of variables compared to a recorder.

[@iAmTheSquidThing]

Thanks for all this enlightening information! Maybe some time you can try to explain why my eyes appear to glow like a fox's when I look into a steamy bathroom mirror.

[@rojeboybalatero8576]

No card

[@PlatinumEagleStudios]

You do realize more than half of the money you gave goes to KZbin and not to Steve? You wasted your money........

[@bartekwasik9131]

I had to watch this episode on heaphones. My dogs were going crazy :D Anyway, awesome job again! I love to watch your movies. Because of them I know what I've missed at school - great teacher.

[@bartekwasik9131]

@Dave Smith ​ I'm 30 years old. Always been in love with physics. Just had the wrong teachers in my life. Now when I see how electric kettle actually works, it make my day more complete :) I wish I had teacher like Steve is. Even thou' english is not my native language, it's simple to understand. More than stuff that I've heard at school.

[@TomServo_MST3K]

When I was very young, a older cousin showed me how to make a whistle out of a cellophane candy wrapper. Basically, you just unfold the wrapper flat, hold it taught with both hands in front of your mouth, and blow directly into the leading edge. It's incredibly loud and I believe it functions like a reed in a wind instrument. Would this not be an example of basic wind-splitting on a wedge? I assume the leading edge of the cellophane acts like a wedge does, but instead of the air flow switching back and forth from the top and bottom of the wedge based on vortices, the wedge itself deviates at a resonant frequency based on the elasticity of the cellophane.

[@ethansoliga4045]

Your such great science videos gives me great knowledge in science. And this video was very informative for me. Thank you for such a knowledgeable video.

[@RedGarner]

Steve, thank you! You had me at harmonics and resonance! You've done it again, helping me better understand principles. Thank you for sharing the answers you find through curiosity. I sure appreciate the quality of your content.

[@rachelllee5954]

All the time, I had this bird whistle in my house, but I never tried blowing it with water...this is so awesome!

[@ToqTheWise]

Two things of note: 1) The first kind of whistle, with a cavity and a wedge, is known as a fipple flute. The most common types bedsides bog standard whistles are the Irish tin whistle and the recorder. Tin whistle playing actually relies on the fact that a notes pitch can change depending on the velocity of air. What you did with your slide whistle is called “over blowing” and it’s how I can three(ish) octaves out of my six holes instrument. 2) traditional flutes work on a similar principle but your bottom lip forms the wedge. You can do a similar thing by cupping your hands together so that air only escapes from the whole created between your thumbs. If you blow into this hole with your bottom lip covering the top half of it, you will produce a whistle. You can change the pitch by changing the shape of the cavity through altering how much your dominant hand is open.

[@crypticfable]

Ahhhh, the whistle from a blade of grass between my thumbs now makes sense. Awesome vid!

[@terryenby2304]

I used to love these as a kid! Thanks for once again making me ask questions and answer them!

[@TheTylerRobison]

The master at explaining anything! love these breakdowns of simple household objects!

[@Cindy-es4ob]

Bird vibes 😂 I have a grandchild now and even though it will be years before we can do anything like this. I'm excited about the fact that I can do it with the help of you. So, thank you!

[@jonathanpalmer5505]

Fascinating and beautifully explained as unusual

[@albmaralb]

2:58 at 0.5x speed. Look how happy he is.

[@mazza420]

this is truly eye opening! ive always wondered how these whistles work in particular how my 7th grade recorder worked, what a great video

[@kaylor87]

What a fun video :) Thanks Steve! Youre starting to remind me of that guy who reviews all the old fashioned toys on KZbin, and is always so enthusiastic about them haha 😊

[@cfung69]

Thank you for sharing, I have this bird flute that I bought in China and it is very interesting. 😊