What's Really Happening When You Inhale Helium

Inhaling helium and talking like Daffy Duck is a classic party trick. But not many know how helium works. Helium is much lighter than air, so sound waves move much faster through the gas. This amplifies the higher frequencies in your voice. The gas sulfur hexaflouride works in the opposite way.

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Following is a transcript of the video:

It’s a classic party trick- suck down a balloon and you’ll sound like Daffy Duck every time. But helium isn’t the only gas that’ll change the way you talk. So what’s going on here?

Your voice is as unique as your fingerprint. Janice didn’t inhale a balloon full of helium. That’s just her “normal” voice. So, let's take a look at how that's even possible. The sound of your voice starts in your voice box, or larynx. It’s a two-inch piece of cartilage at the top of your throat. In the box are two stretchy strands of tissue, your vocal cords. Which vibrate against each other at a specific frequency when you talk.

Women generally have thinner, shorter, tighter vocal cords than men. So, their vocal cords vibrate faster which generates a higher pitched voice. That sound is called the fundamental frequency of your voice. On its own it just sounds like a simple buzzing. But when it reaches your vocal tract, the sound waves start bouncing around. Those reflections interfere with each other. Which creates a mix of other frequencies, that you can detect with a spectrograph. So even though your voice starts out as one frequency, it ends up as a mix of multiple ones.

And that's where helium comes into play. Helium is lighter than air. Which means sound moves faster throught helium than through air – nearly 3 times faster, in fact. So the sound waves bounce around faster in your vocal tract, which amplifies the higher frequencies in your voice. It's sort of like how speeding up your voice makes it sound higher.

But hold on a sec. These people aren't inhaling helium. They're sucking down sulfur hexafluoride, which is six times heavier than air. So sound waves move slower through it, which amplifies the lower frequencies in your voice. But here's the fascinating thing. The pitch of your voice hasn't changed when you inahle either gas, because your vocal cords move at the same rate no matter what gas you're breathing. So your fundamental frequency stays, well fundamental.

Regardless of whether you want to sound like Daffy Duck or James Earl Jones, keep in mind that inhaling anything but air can be dangerous. Especially when the gas is denser than air, because it will sink to the bottom of your lungs. And you may have to get it out like this. What questions do you have about the human body? Let us know in the comments and thanks for watching.

[_curtis]

so that's what Anime voice actors do

[n_acquaintance]

So that's why Eminem raps fast the secret is the Helium

[DrummerRF]

The vocal tract doesnt produce more frequencies, it selects them. A buzzing tone is actually filled with a lot of harmonics. Which ones of those get amplified depends on the resonance characterisrics of your throat and whatever you are doing with your mouth and tongue.

[fh-qhle]

I remember I had helium and I was walking up the stairs and I slipped or something and I think I blacked out for like 18 seconds and all I remember is seeing Mickey mouse.

[PaiviProject]

Heh hee. I have never tried it but I have always wanted to try...maybe one day I'm not such a chicken 👍

[boah]

It's just a glitch. God will fix it in the next update.

[suhasop]

Plot twist:








Our voice after inhaling Helium is our actual voice, while inhaling Oxygen makes our voice heavier

[qawsqaws]

Does speaking a certain language change your voice? English, Russia, Vietnamese or French... Does it alter how we sound if we speak different languages?

[ethan-duuy]

who else is afraid their voice is stuck like this forever

[MagmaHQ]

*Me who has asthma*
*GUESS I’LL DIE THEN*

Me who gets confused for a boy
*Guess I’ll helium then*

[iiliq-yt]

2:57 You sound like that little glitchy girl in Wreck It Ralph!

[jadsi]

3:09 “Inhaling anything but air can be dangerous”





Now I am sad and don’t plan on doing that trick anymore 😢

[lornaking]

When you did that beeping sound at 1:31 I heard freddy from fnaf di his laugh!

[doggobind]

1:19 Why does Google assistant keep telling me about vocal cords!?!?

[MrGlitch_YT]

These are questions i never knew i wanted the answer to 😂

[hamadaj]

3:20 me trying to save my body after consuming 50 whippits

[nicoguzmanp]

But, isn’t the sound supposed to go faster through denser substances? If Helium is lighter than air it should make the sound move slower, shouldn’t it?

[vxish.mp]

2:12 Atlast!!!! I found the owner of Kevin's voice

[klheighty]

Question: How long does it take to stop the helium or the deep voice?

[flopmf_]

"What's Really Happening When You Inhale Helium"
Me: *Chipmunk.* **Cutely inhales the Helium and sings "I ate a Helium by Jisoo In Blackpink**