1. What is a pan flute and how does it work?
A pan flute is a musical instrument composed of a series of pipes of different lengths, closed on one end, attached side by side.
What is a pan flute and how does it work?

2. What is the pan flute and how does it work?
Sound waves are pressure waves. That is they push molecules together when they travel through them.
While sound waves are longitudinal waves it is sometimes easier to examine wave behavior by looking at the corresponding transverse wave, like the pressure wave above left.

3. What is the pan flute and how does it work?
Recall that for sound waves, which are longitudinal waves (left), one wavelength (l) is the distance between two compressions or two rarefactions.
This is the same distances between two crests or two troughs in a transverse wave (right).

4. What is the pan flute and how does it work?
When the player blows air into the pipe the air bounces off of the closed end of the tube and back out of the tube opening, which creates a sound as the air wave resonates in the pipe due to air pressure differences.
This wave, which bounces back and forth, is called a standing wave.

5. What is the pan flute and how does it work?
In the standing wave above, the areas labeled “node” are areas of minimum energy. The areas labeled “anti-nodes” are areas of maximum energy.
The oscillation, or up and down motion, of the wave creates pressure differences in the pipe, which creates sound.

6. What is the pan flute and how does it work?
The pipe on the right represents the simplest frequency, and simplest sound, a pipe closed at one end can produce. This is called the fundamental frequency.

7. What is the pan flute and how does it work?
Multiplies of the fundamental frequency are called harmonics.
Fundamental 2nd Harmonic 3rd Harmonic

8. What is the pan flute and how does it work?
Notice how only one half (1/2) of a wave crest fits in the top pipe? This is only one fourth (1/4) of the standing wave.
This means the wave formula v=lxf changes to v=4lxf.
The wavelength (l) is the length (L) of the pipe so the formula becomes v=4Lxf.

9. What is the pan flute and how does it work?
Look at the bottom two pipes:
Changing the length of the pipe changes how much of the wave fits in the pipe, which changes the resonance, which results a change in pitch of the sound.
To calculate length (L) for a specific note frequency, and the speed of sound in air, we use the formula L=V . 4f

10. What is a pan flute and how does it work?
A single frequency of sound is called a note. The A4 note has a frequency of 440 Hertz.
An octave is a range of eight notes, where the eight note is exactly twice the frequency of the first note. The A5 note is 880 Hertz, double the A4 note.
A scale is a series of notes played in order. Scales might span an octave, but do not necessarily do so.