Artist “Hums” with Bees
March 30th, 2006
This artist from Trondheim, Norway discovered that by humming VERY close to a bumblebee, and at a harmonic interval to it’s buzzing, he can control the pitch of the sound it makes. My understanding of it is that if the nodes of the two sound waves align, the bee’s buzzing becomes a kind of carrier wave for the humming, which is then amplified. (That is, the crests and troughs augment each other instead of canceling out.) There is a video on his site.
Warning: it’s important to use a male bee, or “drone”; the female bees can sting! You’ve been warned.
He has also constructed a Dijeridu out of ice – which he plays in a video on his site. Fantastic.
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April 3rd, 2006 at 4:20 pm
I actually knew a kid in high school who used to catch bees with cups and then put them in the freezer. When the bee had been chilled enough and no longer moved very much, he would tie one end of a little string around the bee and the other to a stick and, in effect, have a bee on a stick.
I suppose this is one way you can catch a bee for said experiment.
April 5th, 2006 at 2:06 pm
He’s not humming. (note: lips open) He’s using his open mouth cavity to amplify and alter the natural pitch of the bee drone.
April 5th, 2006 at 8:24 pm
ah – good catch. like the openings on a violin or guitar. So, the width of his mouth likely has a 1/2, 1/3, 1/4 scale relationship with the length of the sound wave of the bee’s buzzing?
April 5th, 2006 at 8:24 pm
No, you’re right – does he only get a variation in tone, or is there a pitch change as well?
August 23rd, 2006 at 7:42 pm
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