ABSTRACT
In the sixteenth century, Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) studied hearing; he compared the sound of a bell to a stone creating ripples when dropped into water. This analogy enabled him to picture how sound could travel in waves. A hundred years later, Italian astronomer and physicist Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) noticed that vibration creates sound and that objects can resonate. As part of his study of sound, he explained everyday effects such as how a wet finger can make a wine glass ring. He also demonstrated that the frequency of sound waves determined their pitch.
