One of the best things about using an iPad is all the great apps that we can run on it. There are excellent apps for just about any purpose you can think of. Better still, there are lots of great free apps for the iPad. Our Best Free iPad App of the Week posts highlight these apps.

This week’s pick is Sound Uncovered by Exploratorium. This is a very unique and original app presented as an interactive book that explores ‘the surprising side of sound’. Here’s a little slice of its App Store intro:

.. this app puts you at the center of the experiment: Hear with your eyes, see with your ears, make and modify recordings, test your hearing, and more.
How do you make a saxophone growl? Are there secret messages in music played backward? Can you talk and listen at the same time? Why does the sound of gum chewing drive some people mad?

Before trying this app I’d never thought much about how interesting sound can be. The app does a fantastic job of presenting lots of interesting things about this subject and doing it in such a fun way that you’re instantly drawn in. Every topic has excellent interactive elements that help you get fully engaged and eager to explore more. Some of the main sections and interactive pages include:

— Find the Highest Note – a sort of trick question approach to this interactive page, as you’ll discover none is highest.

— Which Car Would You Buy – how sound can help to sell, and some great examples you can try out on a car.

— What’s making this sound – booming dunes, ringing rocks, and stalacpipes.

— Eyes vs Ears – videos with a mismatch between picture and audio.

— How Od Are Your Ears – test your hearing with an easy slider and high frequency sounds.

— Sounds Like: a grid of videos, and you guess the sound being described.

— Echolation – the process of ‘seeing’ with sound – it’s used by bats, dolphins, toothed whales, and people. This page gives you instructions to hear this for yourself with a simple experiment you can do with your iPad.

— Mind If I Chew Gum – covers ‘small’ sounds that drive you crazy – with a handful of good examples you can tap to hear.

— The Beat Goes on – exploring beat waves.

— Play It Backward – try out recording palindromes and other phrases and then playing them back normally and backwards.

I wasn’t sure about trying out Sound Uncovered at first, just because I never thought I was hugely interested in this subject. But it turns out I found the app, and the topics it covers, fascinating. I think it’s a great family app too – as kids will love all the great interactive elements throughout its pages.

Here’s an App Store link for Sound Uncovered.

If you’re after more great free iPad apps, be sure to check out our previous choices for Best Free iPad of the Week. We’ve also recently put together a best of the best of our selections from the last year in a Top 25 Best Free iPad Apps list.