You think you know all about gas?

Well, today Imma talk about two kind of gases namely Helium and Sulphur Hexafluoride and some cool effect it can make. =)

Helium

• Helium (He) is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic, inert monatomic chemical element that heads the noble gas group in the periodic table and whose atomic number is 2.
• The voice of a person who has inhaled helium temporarily changes in timbre in a way that makes it sound high-pitched. The speed of sound in helium is nearly three times the speed of sound in air; because the fundamental frequency of a gas-filled cavity is proportional to the speed of sound in the gas, when helium is inhaled there is a corresponding increase in the resonant frequencies of the vocal tract.

Sulphur(Sulfur) Hexafluoride

• Sulfur hexafluoride is an inorganic compound with the formula SF6. It is a colorless, odorless, non-toxic and non-flammable gas (under standard conditions). SF6 has an octahedral geometry, consisting of six fluorine atoms attached to a central sulfur atom. It is a hypervalent molecule.
• Another effect is the gas's ability to alter vocal sound waves. The gas can be inhaled in a small, safe amount and cause the breather's voice to sound very deep. This, too, is due to the gas density. Unlike helium, which is much less dense than air, SF6 is approximately 5 times more dense than air, and the velocity of sound through the gas is 0.44 times the speed of sound in air. Unlike a gas such as helium, the speed of sound in which is greater than the speed of sound in air, the result of inhaling SF6 is the opposite of inhaling helium, a lowering of the frequency of the formants of the vocal tract.

So what I'm saying is that while Helium will make your voice sounds higher, Sulphur Hexafluoride will make your voice sounds deeper. Observe the video below.

Tuesday, September 30, 2008