system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
How do human vocal cords hit such low notes when strings and wind instruments have to be many, many times larger to do the same? Put another way, why are there no tiny bass instruments?
gpt
The difference between our vocal chords and string/wind instruments is that our vocal chords physically vibrate at the particular frequency through muscular tension, while strings and winds produce a longitudinal wave along their entire length that vibrates at the particular frequency. So for a string/wind instrument, a lower frequency requires a longer resonator. But a voice requires merely that the folds vibrate more slowly. To be sure, even with voices there is some dependence on length of the resonator: adult male voices are deeper than child and female voices in general; but this is the basic idea.