The Science of Everyday Sounds
Like Duolingo, but for The Science of Everyday Sounds. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.
For the part of you with thirty open tabs that never became anything.
79 levels across 8 sections, about 158 minutes end to end, roughly 32 days at five minutes a day. It moves through Tuning In to Daily Acoustics; Solid Collisions and Material Signatures; The Secret Acoustics of Liquids; Rooms, Enclosures, and Domestic Spaces; The Human Body as an Acoustic Instrument; Air, Turbulence, and Everyday Machines; How the Ear and Brain Decode Sound; and The Deep Mechanics of Acoustic Waves. It starts from scratch.
Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android
Key ideas in The Science of Everyday Sounds
- The impact causes the spoon to rapidly vibrate back and forth
- The vibrating surface shoves against neighbouring air molecules, creating spreading ripples of compressed air
- Sound reaches your ear as physical pressure waves through the air, not floating sound energy
- Stiff, hard materials rebound fast and produce rapid, high-frequency vibrations
- Denser, softer, or porous materials absorb energy and vibrate slowly, yielding lower, duller thuds
- Your brain uses the resulting pitch and ring duration to immediately identify an unseen dropped item
- Air absorbs crisp, high-frequency sound waves quickly over distance
- Low-frequency bass waves travel much farther through air without fading
- A sharp, bright sound happened close by, while a muffled, boomy sound originated far away
- A smaller pocket of vibrating air or liquid vibrates faster, producing a higher pitch
- As a mug fills, the remaining empty air space shrinks, causing the pitch of the sloshing/tapping tone to rise
- You can reliably tell a container is nearly full without looking just by listening for the pitch to climb
- Cupping hands artificially enlarges the ear's external sound-gathering funnel (pinna)
- The enlarged scoop captures and focuses subtle, short-wavelength high frequencies that otherwise miss the ear canal
- It acts like a directional sound funnel aimed forward, making faint textures instantly crisper
- The very first instant of an impact sound (the attack) signals hardness before resonance begins
You've tried the other tabs
Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.
You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.
One answer, then back to scrolling.
Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.
Tomo gives The Science of Everyday Sounds the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.
Here's what playing it feels like
A real question from this course. Take your best guess.
What does a vibrating spoon do to the air right next to it?
Get it right to open this lesson and 78 more in the app.
Where The Science of Everyday Sounds takes you
Discover the hidden physics and sensory surprises inside the clinks, whistles, pops, and echoes of daily life. Learn how everyday materials shape sound, why rooms transform your voice, and how your brain untangles the acoustic world.
- 1
Tuning In to Daily Acoustics
- The Quick Sonic Audit
- Diagnosing Objects by Their Impact
- 2
Solid Collisions and Material Signatures
- Why Metals Ring and Woods Thud
- Glass, Ceramics, and the Sound of Breaking
- Snaps, Cracks, and Friction Screeches
- 3
The Secret Acoustics of Liquids
- The Pitch of a Filling Mug
- Bubbles, Droplets, and Boiling Hiss
- 4
Rooms, Enclosures, and Domestic Spaces
- Why Showers Flatter Your Voice
- Taming Room Noise with Soft Furnishings
- How Walls Leak Sound and How to Stop It
- 5
The Human Body as an Acoustic Instrument
- How the Voice Box and Mouth Shape Words
- Footsteps, Chewing, and Bodily Pops
- 6
Air, Turbulence, and Everyday Machines
- Whistles, Flutes, and Wind Through Gaps
- Motors, Compressors, and Mains Hum
- Sonic Booms, Whip Cracks, and High-Speed Air
- 7
How the Ear and Brain Decode Sound
- Locating Sounds in Three Dimensions
- Masking and the Cocktail Party Effect
- Uncanny Sounds, Chalkboards, and Misophonia
- 8
The Deep Mechanics of Acoustic Waves
- Frequency, Overtones, and the Shape of Waves
- Resonance and Wave Impedance
8 sections · 20 units · 79 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.
You pick the voice
The Science of Everyday Sounds is taught in the Explain Like I'm 5 style: no big words. promise.. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.
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Start The Science of Everyday Sounds today.
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