Why does helium change the voice? Why does the voice change when inhaling helium? Why does the voice change when helium is inhaled.

Probably each of us knows that if you inhale a little gas from a helium balloon, then the voice will become thinner and will sound funny. But not everyone will be able to answer why the voice changes from helium when the gas is inhaled ?! And all because helium has a much lower density. The vocal cords vibrate elastically in the air stream. And since the density of helium is seven times lower than air, it means that it loads the ligaments much less, which is why they vibrate with a higher frequency and the voice becomes squeaky and funny.
Now let's take a closer look at how and why helium changes the voice. The mechanics of the human voice is an amazing biological phenomenon. It all starts with the fact that air enters the lungs through the larynx and then leaves the lungs in the form of carbon dioxide again through the larynx. This can be manipulated in several ways. For example, you can release the air, and all that is heard by others is the sound of breathing. If you need to say something, the muscles of the larynx and vocal cords are included in the matter.

The air in your lungs pushes your diaphragm to relax. It then travels through your windpipe and into a small opening that has two folds of skin (vocal cords) on either side of it, in the shape of a V. As the muscles that control your voice tense and relax, they create the vibration of the cords. When these cords vibrate, they release pulses of air. Tension in these muscles creates differences in frequency. The higher the voltage, the higher the frequency and therefore the higher the voice. This frequency is measured in hertz (well, that is, how many times per second it repeats). For example, almost all human speech sounds typically range from 200 hertz to 8000 hertz.

After exiting the vocal window, the air moves into an area of ​​your mouth that can be informally called your vocal tract. As you manipulate your tongue, jaw, and lips, you can change the resonant frequencies created by your vocal connections, producing many different speech sounds.
The sound created by air flowing at different frequencies and resonances creates our voice. Another factor affecting stride is the thickness of the vocal cords. The thicker the folds of the skin, the deeper the voice, and vice versa - the thinner the folds and the thinner the voice.

So now let's talk about the air that comes out of your lungs. The number of molecules in a fixed volume of gas, like the volume of air in the lungs, does not change with the type of gas (assuming the pressure is low enough). As long as the temperature and pressure are the same, it doesn't matter if it's helium or air, the number of molecules is the same. The mass of these molecules is then measured by atomic weight. Atomic weight is a dimensionless physical quantity (which is why it works so well for a gas that doesn't necessarily have a given size). This is the ratio of the average mass of an element's atoms compared to 1/12 of the mass of a carbon-12 atom. All this basically means is that the higher the number, the heavier the gas.
Helium has an atomic weight of 4.002602. Air, which is approximately 80% nitrogen, has different characteristics depending on the environment. Because of this, its actual atomic weight cannot be accurately determined. However, it is typically about seven times heavier than helium.

So, why does the voice change from helium when the gas is inhaled?! The answer lies in how sound waves travel through a given gas. The denser or heavier the gas, the slower the sound wave will be. Helium is much lighter than air. Then the speed of the sound wave through helium will be much higher. So when you inhale helium and use it as a source of perceived sound, you simply increase the speed or frequency of your voice. You don't change the pitch, as your vocal cords vibrate at the same rate as when you use air. You also do not change the configuration of your vocal tract. Therefore, while the fundamental frequency of the chords remains the same, the frequency of the sound heard by others increases due to the wave passing through helium much faster than through air.

Who among us has not tried to inhale the contents of helium balloons and then talk in a funny cartoon voice? Many are even sure that they understand why the voice is so...

Who among us has not tried to inhale the contents of helium balloons and then talk in a funny cartoon voice? Many are even sure that they understand why the voice changes so dramatically.

Here are the most common versions:

• Helium is less dense, so it makes the vocal cords vibrate more. Hence the higher squeaky voice.
• Helium is lighter than air and escapes faster. The speed of the movement of sound changes the voice.
• Helium changes the structure of the vocal cords, which entails a change in voice.

If you don't want to sound stupid, don't say that.

What is really going on?

These indicators are related by the formula:

Wave propagation speed = wave frequency * wavelength

It is the frequency of the sound wave that affects the characteristics of the voice, its individuality.

The vocal apparatus includes the oral and nasal cavities, pharynx, larynx, lungs and trachea. The vocal cords are located in the larynx. The vocal cords are folds in the mucous membrane of the larynx. They really fluctuate under the pressure of the air exhaled from the lungs. A sound wave is formed, that is, sound. But! It's not a voice. We don't even hear this sound.

What do we hear? Due to the vibration of the vocal cords, the air in the lungs and larynx also begins to vibrate. There is a resonance. This is a sharp increase in the amplitude of the oscillations of a sound wave. It is the resonance that makes the sound louder. These amplified sound waves we hear and call voice. Resonance occurs in different people at different frequencies with a specific sound wavelength. Usually at four or five frequencies. Therefore, each person has a different voice. This is called the timbre of the voice. It is the timbre of the voice that changes when we inhale helium.

Why does the timbre of the voice change?

So, we inhale helium. What changed? The environment has changed. Helium is indeed less dense than air. The speed of a sound wave increases in a less dense medium, but its length remains the same (after all, the size of the mouth, pharynx, larynx did not change). What indicator is changing? Let's look at the formula. Right! Frequency. Resonance now occurs at higher frequencies of the sound wave. And we hear a different timbre of voice. Squeaky and funny.

Surely you will have fun with your friends more than once, speaking in the voice of a cartoon character. The effect of helium is so amazing that even an adult is hard to resist the temptation to inhale the contents of the balloon. Try to surprise your friends next time with an understanding of the nature of this phenomenon. No one doubts that laughter prolongs life, but only knowledge fills it with meaning.

Helium: changing a person's voice from helium?

Many in childhood did a “trick” with a gel ball, becoming a cartoon character for a while. So why does helium change the voice, and how long can we maintain such an effect?

No one can say the name of the first person who dared to inhale foreign gas and experience changes in vocal cords. However, many follow the path of "pioneers" and at parties show the skill of conversation in a sweet voice. There are a huge number of videos on the Internet that allow you to extend the effect of helium by 10-20 seconds. The average duration of the action of gas with one breath is 30 seconds, which is quite enough for telling a little joke or staging a parody.

Each of us asked ourselves questions about why the voice changes from helium, and on what factors it depends. First, helium belongs to the group of inert gases, whose density is higher than the density of the air that we all breathe. Secondly, when a certain amount of helium is inhaled, an active effect on the vocal cords begins: air masses "compress" them, and as a result, the interlocutor's speech changes to a child's.

So, the human timbre depends on many factors. However, an important role is played by the density of the air that a person inhales. If this indicator of inhaled content is less than a certain mark, then abrupt changes in speech may not be observed.

Thus, one can conclude the fact that the voice due to the inhalation of helium is changed solely due to the density of the foreign gas. Using this fact, a person can independently control the time of "mouse" speech.

Why else could the sonorous voice of the interlocutor familiar to everyone change? Similarly, the timbre would change not only under helium, but also under the influence of other air masses, whose density would be higher than the density of air familiar to us. One can imagine how a person could speak on the Sun or on the Moon if he inhaled the local air.

Note: Helium is one of the addictive gases. But in small doses, it does not pose any danger to humans. However, you should not abuse the inhalation of this element, as this can adversely affect your well-being.

Helium is a noble gas that has a number of specific properties. And in particular, it allows you to change the voice of a person, making him squeaky, like cartoon characters. But why is this happening, and what other properties does this gas have? Is it safe to inhale it, and are there any side effects? How studied is this substance, where is it used?

Helium is used in many ways, the easiest way to find it is from balloon sellers who use it extensively. This is a well-studied substance about which quite a lot can be said.

Helium features

Helium is an inert gas and has all the features characteristic of this group. It does not have a typical smell or taste, it is colorless, a helium cloud will not differ in appearance from the surrounding air. The element has a feature that is fixed only for it - at a temperature of -268.9 degrees Celsius, it liquefies, but it will not be possible to achieve its transformation into a solid state under ordinary earthly conditions. To do this, it is necessary not only to lower the temperature to 1 K, but also to increase the atmospheric pressure to 25 atmospheres. But this has nothing to do with the ability of gas to change a person's voice.

Another feature of this substance will be more interesting within the framework of the question under consideration. Helium is an extremely light gas, only hydrogen is lighter. It is very common in nature, accounting for approximately 23 percent of all substances in the universe known to man. Matter is born in stars during nuclear fusion. This gas is 7 times less dense than the air of the earth's atmosphere, being the second lightest among all existing ones. Only hydrogen is ahead of him.

Interesting fact : it is the low density that makes helium interesting for balloon sellers. By filling balloons with it, people provide them with the opportunity to rush up into the sky. Thanks to gas, it is possible to lift into the sky not only balloons, but also entire airships. Less dense matter tends upward, these are the laws of physics.

How does the gas manage to change the voice?

To understand the issue of voice changes under the influence of helium, it is necessary to take into account the fact of its low density and consider one more nuance - how a person manages to make sounds, speech. Any type of sound, including the human voice, is a vibration. As for human speech, these sounds are produced by the movement of the vocal cords, which are located in the larynx. The timbre of the voice is formed by the frequency of oscillations, the higher this indicator, the higher the voice.

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In a normal air environment, a person's voice remains familiar, sounds are produced and transmitted in a standard way. But if the indicators of the environment change, then the voice can also change - in a significant or insignificant way. Some people note that voices can sound slightly different even in heavy fog, when the humidity of the environment changes. And this is not a subjective opinion. When an inert gas is inhaled, the vocal cords are compressed, the frequency of their vibrations increases significantly. With an increase in the frequency of vibrations, the voice also changes, it becomes higher, funny.

There is a substance that gives the opposite effect. If sulfur fluoride is inhaled, the voice will sound lowered, the female voice will be perceived as a male bass. It is one of the heavy gases, its density is 5 times higher than that of air.

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Is helium safe?

In general terms, inhaling helium can be considered relatively safe fun, if you breathe not only helium, but also ordinary air, and do not indulge in entertainment with special zeal. Indeed, otherwise you can get oxygen starvation. The first signs of this are nausea, dizziness, headache, and breathing problems. In addition, you should not do this regularly, because there is a risk of damage to the vocal cords. They must be protected, damage in this area can be irreversible, damaging the voice, or making it impossible to talk. The human voice apparatus is highly sensitive.

Do not inhale helium deeply or breathe it for a long time, otherwise gas bubbles may form in the blood, causing a risk of stroke. Oversaturation of the lungs with helium instead of oxygen is also dangerous.

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Why does the microphone have a case?

Such entertainment is risky for pregnant women and for young children, they definitely should not inhale helium. Adults and healthy people should be advised to take only shallow breaths, a couple of times at a time, because this will be enough for the effect of a high voice. When the voice becomes normal again, you can try to repeat the event two or three more times.

Thus, the voice changes due to the fact that helium has a much lower density than air. The vocal cords of a person work differently in such conditions, the voice becomes much higher. Inhaling helium to create a cartoon voice effect is pretty fun, but to stay healthy, be careful.

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• Why does a person not recognize his ...

Sound is the propagation of waves in an elastic medium (gas, liquid, solid body) and is born from vibrations of something (a ruler clamped in a vise, a loudspeaker membrane, air in a pipe, a string, etc.). The higher the oscillation frequency (the greater the number of oscillations per second), the higher (thinner) the sound. On the contrary, the lower the oscillation frequency, the lower (rougher) the sound. Too high sound (ultrasound, with a frequency above 20 kHz) we do not hear. Too low sound (infrasound, with a frequency below 16 Hz) is also not perceived by the human ear.

If you inhale helium (before that, it is better to take a deep breath), then the ligaments will not be in the usual air environment, but in the helium one. Helium is a very light gas, which under normal conditions has a density 7 times less than that of air. In a less dense medium, bundles (like strings, for example) vibrate at a higher frequency. Imagine that you are clapping your hands in water and in air - just like that, it is easier for the cords to oscillate in helium than in air, which is seven times more dense.

It can be assumed that if you breathe in some gas (harmless, of course), whose density is greater than that of air, then the voice, on the contrary, will become lower.

Such a safe and colorless gas exists and is often used in physics demonstrations. This is sulfur hexafluoride (or sulfur (VI) fluoride, SF 6). Its density under normal conditions is 5 times higher than the density of air. The ligaments in it fluctuate with less frequency and the voice therefore becomes rougher.

We note as additional information that in addition to high density, sulfur hexafluoride has a high breakdown voltage (89 kV / cm), i.e., it is a very good insulator (this is shown in the video). This property is used in high-voltage electrical engineering, and one of the names of this gas - SF6 - is an abbreviation for "electric gas", which was given in the USSR, where this property was discovered in the 30s.

It is also interesting to know what frequencies the human voice can produce in general. The best voices are trained, choreographed singing voices. The bass has the lowest sounds (80 Hz-350 Hz), the highest sounds have the soprano (up to 1400 Hz). Some singers are able to take the note F of the third octave ( Aria of the Queen of the Night in Mozart's opera "The Magic Flute") - 1396.9 Hz and even the note G of the third octave (aria " Io non chiedo, eterni Dei" for soprano and orchestra, Mozart KV316) - 1568 Hz.

There are also incredible records of hitting the lowest or highest notes. Thus, the lowest note, almost inaudible to the ear, was recorded by Tim Storms from the USA - 8 Hz. Singer Mariah Carey sang a note up to the 4th octave (2093 Hz). In 2014 in Ukraine (in Kyiv) a national record was set - singer Svetlana Podyakova took up to 5 octaves! And in 2008, Adam Lopez took a note in C-sharp of the fifth octave, for which there is not even a key on the piano (the rightmost key of the piano is up to the 5th octave) - this is more than 4000 Hz!

And this is without any helium and sulfur hexafluoride!