Turning rude and crude noises into music
Jearl Walker www.flyingcircusofphysics.com
September 2010    A schoolboy prank that produces rude sounds has been developed into a musical art form by numerous manualists. You grasp your hands tightly together with an air trapped inside the cavity they form. Then you suddenly squeeze your hands so as to increase the pressure in that trapped air. Some of the air is forced out through a narrow opening between the two hands. The outward flow is not continuous but occurs in bursts because the two sides of the opening oscillate, widening the opening and then collapsing the opening, only to reopen as you continue to increase the air pressure.

Here is an example of the schoolboy beginnings of manualism:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYsNiLX9jgQ&NR=1

And here next is a good example of how the noises have become a form of music. The link takes you to manualist Gerry Philips playing along with Queen on their famous recording “Bohemian Rhapsody.” (If you open up the introductory notes from Philips, you’ll see the message that Brian May sent him about the video. May, who was guitarist and song writer for Queen, finally return to school a few years to complete his Ph.D. in astrophysics. There is my ideal life --- study undergraduate physics, then become a rock and roll star for a few decades, then study graduate physics --- what an ideal life!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOyEw9bT8yQ&feature=related

The hand action of a manualist creates sound in two ways: (1) The two sides of the opening periodically slap together. (2) The periodic bursts of air produce a series of pressure waves. The result is that a sound of “thbbb thbbb thbbb” reaches your ears.

The same physics, rudeness, and possible musical career lies beyond a similar rude noise produced with an arm pit. You cup your hand on the arm pit of the opposite arm, trapping air between the hand and the arm pit. Then you bring that arm down quickly to compress the hand and the trapped air. Air periodically bursts out through an oscillating opening between the bottom edge of your hand and the skin over your rib cage. Again, a sound of “thbbb thbbb thbbb” is generated by the periodically slapping of the two sides of the opening and the pressure waves from the periodical bursts of air.

Say, listen. If you are in school and get tired of that math, science, essay writing, and other stuff, then here is a career for you. You can work your way from nightclub to nightclub playing U2 songs on your armpit and arm guitar. Well, maybe not. It would not be the crazy life of a rock and roller. Actually it would be rather sad. Better stick with that math and science, essay writing, and other stuff, and just keep the rude noises at home.

More rude sound stories can be found at

http://www.flyingcircusofphysics.com/News/NewsDetail.aspx?NewsID=38

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=es6pW7N0GiA&feature=related tutorial

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxRPU2SB_sA&feature=related Bee Gees --- Stayin’ Alive

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7THKUclnBQ&feature=related Deep Purple – Smoke on the Water

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZN1puUwH0c&feature=related Guns n Roses--- Sweet Child of Mine

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaBMmg-hdcc&feature=related Led Zeppelin – Stairway to Heaven

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85MEoxQ9cAE&feature=related Red Hot Chili Peppers --- Under the Bridge

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTxX3K2zc2Y&feature=related Aerosmith --- Walk This Way

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Se49-k9zMi8 Lone Ranger theme

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0bKq3x74UE&feature=related Mario Brothers theme

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jvn8wsIrHag&feature=related Europe – The Final Countdown

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f26qMlN742w&feature=related the legendary John Twomey on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVUjqLNNCVI&feature=fvst little boy with Bon Jovi music

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQvSYYoR9oo&feature=related man, and also in slow motion

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54xBezKDwk0&feature=related little boy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9CaPxENrFQ little girl

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