How does temperature affect the sound of a flute?
The sound of a flute originates in the column of air inside it. As the flautist blows across the hole in the flute’s mouthpiece, the air column begins to vibrate in and out of the flute’s two main openings: the hole in its mouthpiece and the open end of its pipe. The pattern of open holes along the length of the flute complicates this vibration, but the basic idea remains the same: a column of trapped air is vibrating between two openings. The nature of this vibration is fairly simple. The trapped air is elastic or “bouncy,” so that it opposes compressions or rarefactions in much the same way as a spring does. The vibrations that take place in this air involve air rushing toward the center of the flute pipe from both ends and then rush away from that center. This air motion repeats rhythmically, propelled by the air’s elastic nature. As air rushes toward the center of the pipe, the air there becomes denser and its pressure rises above atmospheric. That elevated pressure slows the inrus
