Translations:AY Honors/Whistles/Answer Key/103/en

A whistle makes a tone as the chamber alternately fills with air and evacuates that air. This cycle repeats several hundred times per second, and the more times per second it repeats, the higher the pitch. There are three main factors that affect how often this cycle repeats: the length of the chamber, the size of the opening(s), and the speed of sound. The speed of sound is (for all intents and purposes) fixed. If the ratio of these other two factors get too "out of whack" with one another, the flute will no longer make a tone. If the chamber is too long, the flute will never resonate. Instead, the air will simply flow through from one end to the other without setting up the fill/exhaust cycles. If the chamber is too wide, it will not be able to confine the air to make it resonate, and the flute will whisper.