WEBVTT - BrainStuff Classics: Why Does Helium Make Your Voice Squeaky?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey brain

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<v Speaker 1>Stuff Lauren voblabomb here with a classic episode from our

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<v Speaker 1>podcast archive. In this one, we get into the weird

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<v Speaker 1>science behind a goofy party trick using the helium from

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<v Speaker 1>a balloon to make your voice go squeaky. Hey brain Stuff,

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<v Speaker 1>Lauren vogel bomb here.

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<v Speaker 2>Today's question is why does helium make our voices go

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<v Speaker 2>all squeaky? And to answer it we have to ask

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<v Speaker 2>three other questions. What is air, what is helium? And

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<v Speaker 2>what is your voice? Note here at the top we

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<v Speaker 2>cannot technically recommend inhaling helium to play with your voice,

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<v Speaker 2>and even if we did, you probably shouldn't take our

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<v Speaker 2>medical advice. But if you're going to only pull from

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<v Speaker 2>a balloon, not a helium tank, tanks contain compressed gas

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<v Speaker 2>that'll pop your lungs, and only take short breaths and

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<v Speaker 2>make sure you get some good old regular air in

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<v Speaker 2>between goes so that you don't suffocate. Okay, So back

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<v Speaker 2>to our questions. First up, air. Air is a gaseous

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<v Speaker 2>molecule soup yep, it seems real thin, but it's chalk

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<v Speaker 2>full of stuff when it's dry. Air is about seventy

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<v Speaker 2>eight percent nitrogen, twenty one percent oxygen, nearly one percent

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<v Speaker 2>are gone, and a wee bit of a bunch of

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<v Speaker 2>other things carbon dioxide, neon, helium, methane, etc. It can

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<v Speaker 2>also contain some water vapor, maybe zero to three percent.

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<v Speaker 2>Your voice is the vibration of that air soup created

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<v Speaker 2>by sound waves. When you speak, saying, or yodel, you're

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<v Speaker 2>pushing air in your lungs out through your throat past

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<v Speaker 2>your vocal cords. You can vibrate, loosen, and pull taut

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<v Speaker 2>your vocal cords in a number of ways to make

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<v Speaker 2>a number of different frequencies of sound. Because the vibrations

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<v Speaker 2>are periodic, meaning that their motion is repeated after an

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<v Speaker 2>interval of time called a period, the frequencies produced by

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<v Speaker 2>your vocal chords are harmonic. The harmonic frequencies that your

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<v Speaker 2>vocal chords create are called your voice's pitch. You can

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<v Speaker 2>manipulate other parts of your mouth noise maker, your throat, jaw, cheeks,

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<v Speaker 2>and tongue to manipulate the way those harmonic frequencies bounce

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<v Speaker 2>around inside your head, that is, resonate before they leave

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<v Speaker 2>your mouth. This gives more power to the frequencies as

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<v Speaker 2>they add to each other, and it creates your voices. Timber.

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<v Speaker 2>Timber is one of those great words that's defined by

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<v Speaker 2>what it's not. It's not how loud your voice is,

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<v Speaker 2>and it's not your pitch. It's any other quality that's

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<v Speaker 2>different if two sounds, loudness and pitch are the same. Okay,

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<v Speaker 2>all of that makes more or less sense. On to helium.

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<v Speaker 2>Helium is an element that's mixed with little air to

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<v Speaker 2>fill balloons because helium is less massive, a colloquially termed

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<v Speaker 2>lighter than air, and thus makes balloons float in air soup.

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<v Speaker 2>It also helps that helium is inert. It doesn't like

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<v Speaker 2>reacting with other elements, so it's not likely to cause

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<v Speaker 2>an explosion or catch fire or anything else that we

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<v Speaker 2>don't like our balloons to do. And it stays a

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<v Speaker 2>gas at a wide range of temperatures. But yeah, it's

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<v Speaker 2>pretty light. How light are we talking? So light? Helium's

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<v Speaker 2>standard atomic weight is just four point zero zero three.

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<v Speaker 2>In comparison, nitrogen and oxygen are more than three times

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<v Speaker 2>as massive, with standard atomic weights a fourteen point zero

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<v Speaker 2>zero seven and fifteen point nine nine nine, respectively. So

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<v Speaker 2>when you breathe in helium instead of air. You're filling

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<v Speaker 2>your lungs and head cavities with these we atoms that

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<v Speaker 2>get pushed around like all heck by sound waves like

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<v Speaker 2>Oz's scarecrow in a mosh pit. The atoms that make

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<v Speaker 2>up normal air don't oscillate as quickly because they're more massive,

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<v Speaker 2>like the tin man in a mosh pit. The practical

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<v Speaker 2>outcome of this is that sound waves travel through helium

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<v Speaker 2>much faster than they do through air, about three times faster.

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<v Speaker 2>Since the sound waves are traveling faster than usual, their

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<v Speaker 2>resonances inside your head cavities occur at higher frequencies. Think

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<v Speaker 2>of it like a pool table. If you started playing

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<v Speaker 2>with ping pong balls instead of pool balls and hit

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<v Speaker 2>them with the same that fly around the table, smashing

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<v Speaker 2>all into each other at much higher speeds. That means

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<v Speaker 2>that less resonance is happening at the lower end frequencies

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<v Speaker 2>of your normal air driven voice, meaning the lower frequencies

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<v Speaker 2>have less power to them, meaning that the sounds that

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<v Speaker 2>emerge from your head cavities and out of your mouth

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<v Speaker 2>are the higher frequencies. You sound squeaky like Donald Duck. Ducks,

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<v Speaker 2>by the way, get their squeaky quack by virtue of

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<v Speaker 2>having a much shorter vocal tract and less headspace for

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<v Speaker 2>air than humans. Note that the helium doesn't change the

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<v Speaker 2>wavelengths of the sounds emerging from your vocal chords. Doesn't

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<v Speaker 2>affect your pitch. If you sing a particular note on

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<v Speaker 2>regular air and then on helium, it will be the

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<v Speaker 2>same note. It'll only change your timber, and specifically the

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<v Speaker 2>timber of your vowels.

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<v Speaker 1>Today's episode is based on a script I wrote for

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<v Speaker 1>the brain Stuff video series back when that was a thing.

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<v Speaker 1>Brain Stuff is production of iHeartRadio in partnership with how

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<v Speaker 1>stuffworks dot Com and is produced by Tyler Clay. Four

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<v Speaker 1>more podcasts from my heart Radio visit the iHeartRadio app,

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