Compare the longest duration you can hold a sound with those of three of your colleagues. Record all four attempts on a good quality tape recorder with an external microphone. Tell each person to take a deep breath and then to say the vowel sound “ah” for as long as he or she can. Then measure the recorded vowels in two ways: first, using a stop watch while you play back the tape; then, by inputting the recordings into a computer with any good sound analysis program (your instructor will tell you how to do this) and measuring the vowels in milliseconds from either the sound pressure wave or a spectrogram using the cursors on the screen. Note the difference in measurement between the stop watch and the sound analysis program, as well as the differences between the speakers.