Final answer:
An electric bell is a device that makes a ringing sound when its button is pressed, due to a hammer striking a metal bell inside. Sound intensity and sound levels are related to the amount of energy striking the eardrums, with increased volume leading to greater energy, not just perceived loudness. Similar principles apply to electric can openers, which also create sounds by vibrating the air. Therefore, the correct answer is a) It rings when you press a button.
Step-by-step explanation:
An electric bell is a device that rings when you press a button. To explain this to a 3-year-old, you could say that it's like a toy that makes a 'ding-dong' sound when you press a special part of it, which in this case, is the button. Inside the bell, there's a part called a hammer that quickly hits a metal bell, just like how you might tap a spoon against a cup to make a sound. This is what creates the ringing noise that we can hear.
When it comes to sound intensity and sound level, tripling the volume of an alarm clock doesn't just make it three times as loud. Instead, it means that much more energy is hitting the child's eardrums every second, even though we might expect it to be twice as much, it's actually more complicated than that due to how we perceive loudness.
In another example, when we talk about an electric can opener that makes a sound when it operates, this also involves creating vibrations in the air that your ears pick up as sound.
This is like the sound made when a special device (the can opener) does its job, and it's the same concept as the electric bell; they both create sounds that can cause reactions—like waking you up or making your pet cat excited for food.