Can You Hear Me Now

(Note:  some posts are out of order because I had to leave Bylakuppe unexpectedly; read the post below titled "Under the Cover of Darkness")

After tea time on Thursday, we started on hearing.  I explained how sound moves in waves through the air.  The amplitude and frequency of sound waves provides information about the loudness and pitch of the sound.  The monks played with rulers to illustrate these properties:  they strummed the rulers with different lengths over a table to hear how vibration can change the pitch of sound. We also worked with tuning forks to hear how sound can be conducted through bone.

Returning home after class

To show how sensitive our hearing is, I gave a paper cup to the monks.  I told them to hold the cup to their ear and then to drop a ball of paper into the cup.  Then they should cut the paper in half, ball it up, and then drop it into the cup again to see if they could hear it.  They were to continue cutting the paper in half until they could not longer hear it dropped into the cup.  The monks were very surprised at how small the paper could be and still hear it.  One monk found a pepper grain that could still be heard when it was dropped in the cup.