Whistle-noise: a home experiment

The 2024 Summer Olympic Games have just started, and I had an idea to simulate something that is present in the life of most athletes: whistles! Unless they are practicing under the directions of coach Roy Kent, a whistle is something they may hear frequently. Whistles are common objects but contain interest aerodynamical and acoustical features. Cavity and jet hydrodynamic instabilities are combined and result in a periodic flow oscillation that generates sound at a frequency around 3 kHz, in the range of peak human hearing sensibility.

The sports whistle is composed by a channel, a circular cavity and a wedge (labium). The flow impacts the labium in a periodic manner producing the tone.

Motivated by the Olympic spirit, I jumped into the subject to try to simulate the phenomenon myself.

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