How does helium change your voice?
Hey. I'm Melissa.
Jam:And I'm Jam.
Melissa:And I'm a chemist.
Jam:And I'm not.
Melissa:And welcome to Chemistry For Your Life.
Jam:The podcast helps you understand the chemistry of your everyday life.
Melissa:Okay. Are you ready for part 2 of Helium?
Jam:I am very, very ready.
Melissa:Okay. So this I said it last time, but I'll say it again. This is a listener question Esther r asked, how does Helium change your voice? Mhmm. Okay.
Melissa:The reason I wanted to separate the 1st Helium episode and this Helium episode was Because before we can even talk about Helium Changes Your Voice
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:We have to talk about what your voice even is.
Jam:Right. Interesting.
Melissa:Which is a pretty big question. Right?
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:Like, what is your voice?
Jam:You know something crazy that's happened since we recorded the first part What? I was watching an episode of Parks and Rec, and there's this one, with my wife. There's this episode where they're throwing this prom for the school because they didn't have a budget to to put on a prom. And Leslie Knope And this high school girl she's trying to mentor both, like, inhale helium and start talking in high pitched voices. And then Ron Swanson walks up and says, Stop wasting helium.
Jam:This need this that needs to be used in important things like welding and blah blah blah. And he was he was a couple things. And and then she starts arguing with him, but her voice is still high. And so she's tried to argue back, but she's still talking really high pitched. But I was like, how crazy that just happened between the time that we recorded part 1 and part 2.
Jam:That's nuts.
Melissa:That is crazy. I don't I even remembered that that was a conversation they had on parks and rec.
Jam:Yeah. I mean, it's it's it's pretty quick, especially if you, like, Weren't really I mean, if you hadn't just recorded a podcast episode about it, it might not really jump out to you as much. But
Melissa:Right.
Jam:It because it's so not part of the main plot of that episode. But, Yeah. Ain't that nuts?
Melissa:But Ron Swanson knows what's up. Yeah. I didn't know it was used in welding. That wasn't one of the applications I found. So That's
Jam:the that's the first one he says, I think. And he naturally is gonna say things that are about, like, you know, making stuff or whatever. They're gonna be higher priority for him.
Melissa:But because he's Ron Swanson.
Jam:Yeah. Sadie, I thought that was funny.
Melissa:That is funny. Okay. So but but okay. That's a funny story. But can you answer the question about what is your voice?
Jam:I think you're Did
Melissa:you just tell that story to deflect Mhmm. So that you didn't have to answer the question, what is your voice?
Jam:And listeners at home, I think we can all agree that it worked.
Melissa:It did work. It's like the age old distract your teacher with a with a Oh, before you tell us that, can we ask you a different question?
Jam:Yeah. Or it's like, oh, is that a photo of your dog or just something like that in their personal
Melissa:life Yeah.
Jam:Before they can give you, any homework. Exactly. Okay. I think I have Some ideas about what our voice is. I know it's vibrations, in the air of some kind.
Jam:Like, it has a frequency just like we've talked about other things like any other kind of a wave. It has a frequency just like those do. But I think I mean, I'm just trying to think about what actually is what what What has a wavelength? What has a frequency? Is it just like air pressure?
Jam:Or What could it be?
Melissa:That's actually pretty close. So I relied heavily on an article from the Scientific American for this because All my textbooks were locked up in my office at the school until, like, a few hours ago. So and I only rescued 2 chemistry textbooks, so this is more physics. So
Jam:Right. Right.
Melissa:The article described it as and I thought that this was so easy to imagine. Jen.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:The article was in Scientific American. It was called why does inhaling healing make our voice sound strange?
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:And I loved how they painted a picture in your mind. So the way any sound wave is produced is by the movement of something in a medium like air. And in this article, they described the drum skin, so, like, the part of the drum that you hit. Mhmm. And imagine that.
Melissa:And when you hit that fabric, The tight fabric of the drum will move. And when it moves up, it compresses the molecule in the the molecules in the air around it. Mhmm. And then it goes back down and compresses on the other side, comes back up, compresses again. And so every time it compresses the air, It compresses the molecules in the air, and it moves away.
Melissa:And as it does that over and over, the repetition of those vibrations In the air, making those little air compressions
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:Is a sound wave.
Jam:Got it. Okay.
Melissa:It's Does that make sense?
Jam:So the particles in the air are literally becoming
Melissa:compressed? Yes.
Jam:Okay. Wow.
Melissa:Isn't that cool?
Jam:Yeah. So you wouldn't say the word like, So what do you what is each wave then? They're just air compressions. Is that what you say?
Melissa:I think so. I think a sound wave is Air compressions moving from where the compression started away. You know? So you hit the drum, and it vibrates. And with each vibration, it's Compressing the air around it, and it moves up and away from the drum towards your ear.
Jam:Mhmm. Man, interesting.
Melissa:How we hear it, I think, is a whole other thing.
Jam:Right. Right.
Melissa:I have friends in speech audiology who I'm sure would love to come on and teach us about the chemistry of hearing. But For now, we're just gonna talk about the sound waves themselves.
Jam:Yeah. And even, like, the speaking part, like, the vocal folds are it's crazy that there's just this little part in our bodies that makes all these different sounds. And it's like Right. So strange. Like, there's a lot there that's super I know.
Jam:Super freaky.
Melissa:Yes. I agree. It's really so strange. So what happens there with the drum head, the way the drum head, The skin on the drum moves back and forth and causes those compressions in the air. That's basically the same thing happening in your vocal cords.
Jam:Mhmm. Mhmm.
Melissa:I think it's obviously, like you said, a lot more complex, that's the general idea is your vocal cords are making sound waves.
Jam:Right. Right.
Melissa:Okay. So you're with me on that?
Jam:I'm totally with you.
Melissa:Okay. Now here's the catch. Okay. The sound waves move differently in different mediums.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:We talked about this with light, how when light hits water, the wave will move differently.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:Sound does the same thing in different types of air.
Jam:Would this be a a good time to try our best to recollect, like, What other teachers have told me about this or just let let it happen?
Melissa:I think you should recollect. Let's see if you got it.
Jam:Okay. So, we didn't I mean, this is I don't know when this was, so they would have not gone nearly as deep on any of these things as as we normally would probably. But the gist that I remember is that, where you're about to go, I think, was the main part that I remember is about our sound waves moving through different materials and the difference of helium being a much Lighter, having much, like, lower mass, each helium atom. And that our Our sound waves can move, like, faster through it, which then Mhmm. Seems like to our ears just makes it higher pitched.
Jam:Yes. Even though it's not like the sound waves, like, changed inherently, they just move through a a medium that They can move quicker through, kinda like the blue light on it from the from the sun.
Melissa:Yes. That's exactly right. So What you said is perfect. Dude. Helium is less dense than normal air, so your sound waves move more quickly through helium than normal air.
Jam:Dude, that is crazy.
Melissa:So I thought about a way to illustrate this is if you're trying to walk through, like, knee deep water, how you move kinda slowly. Uh-huh. But if you're walking through air, like, normal on the ground, you can walk much more quickly.
Jam:Right.
Melissa:That's the same way with Your the sound waves from your vocal cord through normal air, it's like almost like moving through water. There's some resistance maybe compared to Helium, there's so much it's so much easier to move because it's less dense. It's almost like walking without any walk walking through water.
Jam:Yeah. Yeah.
Melissa:That's the picture that came to my mind.
Jam:That that makes a lot of sense. It's like, it just oh, nice. This is so easy. Like, it was Right. We were having to, like, work a little bit to get through the other stuff, Like, man, I'm trying to remember what teacher that would have been, but I would have to guess my physics teacher probably.
Jam:Right?
Melissa:Probably so. This is definitely more physics c than chemistry e.
Jam:So my best guess is that was probably my my old physics teacher in high school, Quinn Connolly. So Quinn, wherever you are, I hope you're hope you're doing alright. Thanks for Teaching me something, and and I'm glad I remembered about probably 10% of the whole thing. So
Melissa:Probably even less. Probably. Oh, that's really exciting. Well, I'm glad that you got it, but, I wanted to take a minute to be excited that it's kind of like Helium doesn't actually change your voice at all.
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:I thought that that was kinda crazy. It's like helium doesn't change your voice. It just changes the air around your voice.
Jam:Right. Which is, like, enough to make a huge difference, but it's not like yeah. I think the way that we always think of it as kids is almost like, Oh, I inhaled this thing, and it's changing. It is changing my voice. It's changing.
Jam:Like, I don't know what I used to think happened, honestly, but it seemed like it was something changing inside of my body almost. You know?
Melissa:Yeah. Like, your vocal cords changed
Jam:Right.
Melissa:Is how it felt to me.
Jam:Yeah. So I kinda knew that one part, there at the end, but The stuff at the beginning was definitely new to me. Do you want me to try to explain kind of a more whole picture of the Helium Yes. Can you hear our voice back? Do you know?
Melissa:Yes. I think that would be a great idea. Yeah. Go for it.
Jam:Okay. So, Like the drum. That is a really helpful visual. Like, the drum.
Melissa:Isn't it?
Jam:Yeah. Especially because, like, I think we've all seen, like, slow mo videos of drums Or some of it is of something like that where you Right. Really get to actually see the movement. Obviously, we know that's happening, but we actually seeing that really helps. And as it as it Thanks, Scientific American.
Jam:Yes. Thanks for being the scientific patriot is what we need. So you hit the drum head, and it moves up and down. So just like that, a sound to me, it's making sound is going to be Both on one end as, like, the drum head comes up is gonna be compressing the air above it, and then comes back down and then comes back up again. So kind of over and over and over super fast is compressing the molecules of air.
Melissa:Right.
Jam:Tie tattered together and then laying off for a second, and then tattered together and laying off for a second. And then that is moving through the air, which is kind of mind blowing, I guess.
Melissa:Yeah. I know.
Jam:Like, these compressions that have been created Are gonna air being sent out into the air. And
Melissa:I know. It's crazy.
Jam:And something that's weird about air that doesn't feel that way to us is that it's more dense than other gases, especially helium. And so in and probably because there's a lot of Other things in the air, not just one type of element.
Melissa:Right. There's nitrogen. There's oxygen. There's carbon side. There's all kinds of stuff, all kinds of molecules in the air for sure.
Melissa:So when we talk about air, I mean, we're talking about The molecules in the air around us are just a lot more than just helium, which is one Mhmm. Pure gas kind of with a specific density.
Jam:Yeah. But just that is really weird. I think I forget that all the time. So it's more dense. Any I mean, aren't all those Gases except for hydrogen more dense than helium?
Melissa:I think the answer to that question is yes. Because it's mass per volume. I'm not sure.
Jam:Well, I didn't even I don't know those. I just was thinking about last week whenever you talked about helium, like, Floating up.
Melissa:The atomic mass.
Jam:Yeah. Floating up above and escaping our atmosphere really easily, like that.
Melissa:Yes. So one Single if you had, like, 1 single atom of helium, that'd be lighter than anything except hydrogen, yes, but or any other element. But When we're talking about density and it's like how much of that gas is over a certain space, I don't really know.
Jam:Oh, it's not exactly the same thing. I get it. I see what you're saying.
Melissa:Right. Yeah. So I can think of density as it applies to liquids very easily, but I'm having a little bit of a hard time thinking through How you measure the density of a gas, and I didn't look into any of that. So I think probably that's another question for another day.
Jam:And because it's less dense when those sound waves, those compressions of of molecules are moving through it, it's gonna be more sluggish. It has to fight a little bit more against that density in the air. But if you suddenly replace that with helium, it can move much more quickly, much less resistance. And so and because all that we hear anyway when it comes to sound is those waves, they're moving much faster, Then it'll sound higher to us. Your voice just sounds higher.
Jam:It's like your voice actually is higher. It's like you're suddenly or something like that. It's just affected the way that your voice moves through space. Right?
Melissa:Right. That's exactly right. Okay. That was awesome. I'm so proud of you.
Melissa:You got to teach the listener something this week. Hey, Something science related.
Jam:It's so good though because, like, you know how how it's it's pretty useless to remember just a tiny fragment of a little thing of a science thing and not be able to really explain why. You know what I mean? Right. And so it works great to have, like, hey. I've got this little fragment, and then I can put it here In the context of this actual scientific information.
Melissa:Yeah. I agree wholeheartedly. That's that was really fun. I I enjoyed that you remembered that because, you know, as a teacher, I teach my students and they leave, and they think they're probably not gonna remember anything that I taught them. And so it's fun to know that you left and did remember.
Melissa:You remembered something.
Jam:Well, we also did a and I we didn't really go way into about the air the molecules as much, but we did a a project about, like, making our own speakers in that physics class in high school. And so that might be No. That's cool. Part of why some of this, is sticking a little bit better because we did spend more time an effort on on sound and sound waves and stuff like that then, than the than other topics I guess. So There's probably who knows how much stuff that I don't remember, and and I'll go ahead and apologize to mister Conley about that.
Jam:But
Melissa:Well well, either way, I think it's cool that you had a takeaway that you remembered and could bring here, so that's exciting. Okay. Are you ready for 2 fun facts?
Jam:Yes. I'm very ready.
Melissa:Okay. Fun fact number 1. If you breathe in a gas that's more dense than It will make your voice deeper.
Jam:Woah. Like, what gas could you even do that with? And can we how can we get some?
Melissa:Okay. Well, first of all, it's very dangerous.
Jam:Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Totally.
Melissa:Because it's it's more dense than air, so it can sit on the bottom of your lungs. Like, I think to actually get it out, you have to hold yourself upside down.
Jam:Oh my gosh. Yeah. That's the last scarier than I expected.
Melissa:Mhmm. Yeah. So it's it's dangerous. And, a gas though that I think people use is argon. I remember them doing it on Mythbusters.
Melissa:That was the 1st time I ever learned about it. So but I don't know what they use. But it is dangerous. Like, you have to think you have to turn yourself upside down so that your lungs like, the gas goes to the bottom of your lungs when you're upside down, which hasn't escaped. So it's it is pretty scary.
Jam:Yeah. Wow. That's very weird.
Melissa:It is very weird. And then the other thing is, apparently, there's a A trend where people try to we talked briefly about this last week, where people try to aerate their beer, like, instead of using traditional carbonation with helium. Mhmm. And then they claim that it makes your voice change, but it doesn't. Can you think of why it wouldn't make your voice change?
Jam:Could it be because you're not gonna breathe the, beer in you're gonna drink?
Melissa:Ding ding ding ding. That's exactly right. So they they are usually apparently, the the way it normally goes, people will be like, oh, I made this beer where I aerated it with helium, and it changed my voice. And then the way the video stated it was then Internet. Nerds prove them wrong, but this was the American Chemical Society has a magazine called Chemistry and Engineering News.
Melissa:And 2 scientists, 2 chemists who also happen to brew their own beer tried to aerate their beer with Helium. And they said it actually is a lot like nitrogen where the solubility is slightly less, I think, until it has that creamier, like a nitro cold brew or a nitrogen Mhmm. Aerated beer, but it's basically useless to waste helium on doing that for any Extensive period of time because you get the same results as a nitro cold brew or a nitro
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:Carbonated beer with just using a very, Expensive gas. So Yeah. But I thought that that was fun that they did that experiment. So those are my 2 fun facts for you.
Jam:Very interesting. Man, I think because we were just the other day I mean, only a few episodes ago, talking about cold brew. And Mhmm. It's like, wait a minute. Why would you use Helium, when you can just use nitrogen.
Jam:Like, that's, like, crazy and more available. Right?
Melissa:Yeah. Oh, yeah. A 100%. It's more available. So he said He was the one that said he believes that the helium shortage is one of the foremost problems facing the scientific community.
Melissa:And he's like, for a fun experiment a magazine, definitely worth it. For everyday use in getting your beard to be wobbly, not worth it at all. So I thought that was fun and interesting.
Jam:See, that's how I was thinking that was like a somebody found a really easy way to to make natural Cold brew at home, like, they've kind of made a product that does a lot of the stuff for you to get some nitrogen or whatever, which is kind of nuts. I feel like Just
Melissa:Get some nitrogen. That seems like it'd be harder than it sells. No. No. No.
Jam:I mean, like, I think they probably sell it, but, like, you have this little thing that is the actual hard part of Somehow getting it into the cold brew. And so
Melissa:Yeah. Like, to get it to dissolve is probably what's hard.
Jam:But it's kinda crazy to me that that's something that can be done at home now And not Yeah. Require, like like, a lot of crazy equipment and stuff.
Melissa:Yeah. It really is amazing the things that the technology that we have in our homes now. Well, that's all I have for you on the chemistry front today. Did you wanna share, something about your week?
Jam:Yeah. I was trying to think, like I mean, I think a lot of our weeks are probably a little less eventful than normal.
Melissa:Yeah. You know what's weird is normally I mean, not always, but a lot of times you share stuff I've kind of heard about before, and I have no idea what's going on in your life. But, also, is anything going on in any of our lives?
Jam:Right.
Melissa:You know?
Jam:That's a great point.
Melissa:It's just so weird.
Jam:And that's why I'm gonna keep you guessing by not sharing anything. And I'm not and I could tell you what's going on in my life. I can't know.
Melissa:No. You have to.
Jam:This is kinda lame, but I just it was kind of a highlight of my week last week. We you know how there's a lot of different tools and stuff for, that people are trying to use and make and find and stuff like that too. Still get to hang out with your friends. So
Melissa:Yes.
Jam:We tried Doing the, like, watch a TV show on Netflix or whatever with friends on a video call, and Mhmm. Your your Videos are all synced up, so you're all watching the same thing at the same time. So we did that last week, which was a little bit to figure out, but was definitely fun. And then we also did a, we we're still with some friends who already live, like, an hour ish away, and so we don't see them very often anyway. But now we definitely can't see them.
Jam:And so we did a thing where we played some games and used a video chat to in order to do that, to all play the same game together. And so it's been kinda fun trying to do those things, and it was, like, such a fun night, which, you know, in a normal season of life, it might seem kinda boring like, Just go. You know, it's no comparison to hanging out together in person. But
Melissa:Oh, yeah. Definitely.
Jam:In this situation we're in right now, it was a huge highlight of our of our week to get to, like, See those people. We were on, like, a probably 2 hour long video call. At first, we all just ate were eating our dinners and stuff. And then we started Playing some games and stuff. And it was just it was a lot of fun, but, it's been kind of interesting trying to find new ways to to connect to people, but also still, stick to guidelines that keep us and others safe.
Jam:So
Melissa:Yeah. I haven't really had much opportunity to try those. I've been actually pretty busy with family stuff going on. But now that my life is getting back to normal, I'm like, K. What do we do for fun?
Melissa:What what happens here? I don't know what I wanna pick to share about my week. Like, I could talk about how my roommate and I tried roller skating, and it's not the same as ice skating, in case you're wondering or if I you know what? I think the highlight for me this week has probably been, My Zoom calls with my students and also actually my my own class. It's just been With my students, it's just been nice to hear from them again.
Melissa:It just feels like it's not the same. Again, like Listened but was not able to contribute to class last week. And the 2 weeks before, we didn't have it. And my professor emailed me and said, it was so great to hear your voice. And I was like, oh, yeah.
Melissa:It's been a month. Yeah. Yeah. Like, it's been so long since we've all seen each other. And so I think just that feeling that there's it's almost the same as yours, but there's some ability to connect in the middle of this weird Situation and how good that feels and how important it is to have that community and connection has just been really good this this week for me.
Jam:Yeah. For sure. Yeah. It makes a big difference. It's easy to feel even more alone or isolated or whatever.
Jam:And so finding ways to to Keep connecting with people. It's a huge difference.
Melissa:Yeah. It really does. Okay. Well, Thanks so much for coming. I mean, you didn't come to my office, I guess.
Melissa:Thanks so much for walking into a closet in your bedroom So that you could learn about chemistry this week. I really appreciate it.
Jam:Anytime. Anytime.
Melissa:And thanks so much to the listeners also. We've Just really this has been such a fun experience, and it's it's really been interesting to see you guys stay consistent and stick around during all this quarantine stuff. So thanks for Coming to learn about how helium doesn't really change your voice this week.
Jam:Yeah. Thanks so much. Melissa and I have a lot of ideas for topics of chemistry in everyday life, we wanna hear from you. If you have questions or ideas, you can reach out to us on Gmail, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook at chem for your life. That's chem, f o r, Your life to share thoughts and ideas.
Jam:If you enjoy this podcast, you can subscribe in your favorite podcast app. And if you really like it, you can write a review on Apple Podcasts. Helps us to be able to share chemistry with even more people. If you'd like to help us keep our show going and contribute to cover the costs of making it, Go to kodashfi.com/chemforyourlife, and donate the cost of a cup of coffee.
Melissa:This episode of chemistry for your life was created by Melissa Collini and Jim Robinson. References for this episode can be found in our show notes or on our website. Jim Robinson is our producer, and we'd like to give a special thanks to V Garza and A Hefner who reviewed this episode.
