Research Paper on:
Physics of Singing

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
of the human voice. How sound is produced The ability of human beings to create music with their voices is due to the vocal cords, which are "two skin-covered  flaps of muscle that open and close the passage to the lungs and oscillate with a wave motion as air rushes out during exhalation" (Rist). It is believed that these  flaps developed around 300 million years ago in the sea creatures who first ventured out the ocean and onto land. The two folds of muscle acted as natural values, which  blocked anything but air from entering the respiratory system and allowed phlegm from the lungs to be ejected, which kept these first land animals from choking to death (Rist).  Evolutionary biologists believe that using the vocal cords to create sounds was "something of an evolutionary afterthought," but eventually, human ancestors found that  they could create sound warnings to others to alert them to dangers by "blowing air out and vibrating their vocal cords" (Rist). Mens vocal cords are generally larger than womens,  but they generally all look alike. Therefore, it is impossible to determine by examination if a set of vocal cords produces a voice like Pavarottis or that of an ordinary  individual, according to otolaryngologist Scott Kessler (Rist). Furthermore, human vocal cords also resembles that of other species. In order to produce sound,  vocal cords operate in a manner similar to the open end of an inflated balloon. Ingo Tize, a physicist at the University of Iowa and director of the National Center  for Voice and Speech, explains that air rushing out of the lungs creates a wave motion in the vocal cords, which causes them to "slam into one another, only to