How do pan-pipes work?

Answer 1

The noise is simply made by air vibrating down tubes of different lengths and diameters.

Blowing across the tops of the tubes sets up a vibration. The frequency (pitch/note) is determined by the physical dimensions of the tubes.

If you blow across the top of an empty bottle you will hear a note. Try blowing across the top of a different sized bottle, or a bottle partly filled with water and you will get a different note.

Pan pipes are constructed to take advantage of this phenomenon.

Answer 2

There is a large fan and an electric motor which fills the wind chest with air.

The windchest will provide the organ with the wind that is released into the pipes. The church organ has one or more keyboards played by the hands and a pedal board played by the feet. When the organist presses the keys on the keyboard sound comes from the air which is blowing through the pipes. This is because a valve (an opening with a one-way door) opens to let the air into the pipe and closes when the key is released. The continuous supply of wind allows the organ to hold the notes for as long as the key is pressed. Each has its own group of stops.

The stops on an organ give different sounds, like the instruments of an orchestra, and have names which tell the organist what kind of sound they will produce.

Each stop controls a row of pipes called a rank. Each rank makes a different sound eg. Flute, Trumpet. The stops can be pulled out or pushed in. When it is pulled out it turns on some sets of pipes. Organs also have buttons called pistons which help to change the combination of stops in the middle of a piece.

Answer 3

The noise is simply made by air vibrating down tubes of different lengths and diameters.
Blowing across the tops of the tubes sets up a vibration. The frequency (pitch/note) is determined by the physical dimensions of the tubes.

If you blow across the top of an empty bottle you will hear a note. Try blowing across the top of a different sized bottle, or a bottle partly filled with water and you will get a different note.

Pan pipes are constructed to take advantage of this phenomenon.