Web Audio Quiz 4: The Science of Sound

The practice quiz below covers the science of sound. Please read the article on The Science of Sound before taking this quiz. Each time you take the quiz, your results will be sent to Dr. Estrella by e-mail. Take the quiz as many times as needed to achieve a perfect score. This practice quiz will help Duquesne students with reading comprehension and better prepare them for the real quizzes to be given via Blackboard.

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  1. If a tree falls in a forest, does it make a sound ?
    1. Yes.
    2. No.
    3. No but the disturbance in the air is called sound waves.
    4. Yes, but only if a living creature with ears is there to hear it .
  2. Which analogy does not apply?
    1. A microphone is similar to a human ear.
    2. The diaphragm in a microphone is similar to the small bones in the inner ear.
    3. A speaker is similar to the larynx.
    4. Voltage changes coming from a microphone are similar to nerve impulses that are sent from the inner ear to the brain.
  3. How is sound recorded onto tape?
    1. Using a digital to analog converter.
    2. The process is all analog. Continuous changes in voltage from the microphone alter the magnetic particles on the tape to create a "picture" of the sound. The picture on the tape is analogous to the original continuous changes in voltage.
    3. The process is all digital. Discrete changes in voltage from the microphone alter the magnetic particles on the tape to create a "picture" of the sound. The picture on the tape represents measurements of the original changes in voltage.
    4. Using an analog to digital converter.
  4. What is amplitude?
    1. The height of a waveform. It represents the volume of the sound.
    2. The number of cycles per second of a waveform.
    3. The distance between the cycles of a waveform.
    4. The speed of the waveform in hertz.
  5. What is frequency?
    1. The number of cycles per second of a waveform.
    2. The height of a waveform. It represents the volume of the sound.
    3. The speed of the waveform in hertz.
    4. The distance between the cycles of a waveform.
  6. What is period or wavelength?
    1. The height of a waveform. It represents the volume of the sound.
    2. The distance between the cycles of a waveform.
    3. The number of cycles per second of a waveform.
    4. The speed of the waveform in hertz.
  7. What is the best description below of sampling?
    1. The process of measuring an electrical signal's voltage hundreds of times per second.
    2. The process of dividing the total range of an electrical signal into discrete parts.
    3. The process of measuring an electrical signal's voltage thousands of times per second.
    4. Taking a small segment of music performed by others and using it in a dance mix.
  8. What is the Nyquist theorem?
    1. The frequency range of a digitized sound is limited to one-fourth the sampling rate.
    2. Humans can hear frequencies in a range of 20 to 20,000 kiloherz.
    3. Humans can hear frequencies in a range of 20 to 20,000 herz.
    4. The frequency range of a digitized sound is limited to one-half the sampling rate.
  9. What is the best description below of sampling resolution?
    1. Sampling at a resolution of 8-bits divides the voltage into 256 parts (2 to the 8th power). Sampling at 16-bits divides the voltage into 65,536 parts (2 to the 16th power).
    2. Using a higher sampling resolution creates cleaner recordings with less background noise.
    3. An 8-bit digitizer will only capture sounds up to 48 decibels (DB). A 16-bit digitizer will capture up to 96 DB of volume. The dynamic range of the human ear extends to 120 DB.
    4. Sampling resolution is the precision with which individual samples are measured.
  10. What is quantization?
    1. The process of measuring the frequency of a sound and rounding off the measurements according to the sampling resolution.
    2. The process of measuring the amplitude of a sound and rounding off the measurements according to the sampling rate.
    3. The process of measuring the amplitude of a sound and rounding off the measurements according to the sampling resolution.
    4. The process of measuring the frequency of a sound and rounding off the measurements according to the sampling rate.
  11. How many megabytes of stereo audio will fit on an audio CD?
    1. 74
    2. 740
    3. 640
    4. 64
  12. Using headphones, listen to the the four excerpts (QuickTime plugin required). Which excerpt was recorded at 8-bit sampling resolution?
  13. Using headphones, listen to the the four excerpts (QuickTime plugin required). Which excerpt was compressed using the QDesign compressor?
  14. What is a codec?
    1. CODEC stands for Compression Decompression. A codec is a set of rules that determines how data is removed from a file to reduce its file size. All codecs result in lossy compression.
    2. CODEC stands for Compression Decompression. A codec is a set of rules that determines how data is removed from a file to reduce its file size. Today's codecs result in lossless compression.
    3. CODEC stands for Compression Decompression. A codec is a set of rules that determines how data is removed from a file to reduce its file size. Today's codecs result in lossy compression but the audible loss in quality is minimal.
    4. CODEC stands for Compression Decompression. A codec is a set of rules that determines how data is added to a file to increase the audio quality of the file.
  15. What is MIDI?
    1. MIDI is part of the QuickTime software.
    2. MIDI is a software synthesis package that generates 128 different timbres for use in electronic music.
    3. MIDI is a sound card standard for PCs and Macs. Users must have a MIDI installed to listen to .mid files on the Internet.
    4. MIDI is a language that describes a musical performance rather than recording it to a digital audio file. As a result, files sizes are very small. The quality of the sound from a MIDI file is dependent on the user's computer hardware.

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