well, WHISTLE?
What are the mechanics and physics behind the noise we find so appealing?
Maybe someone could do a simple approach and someone else could do a more technical one?
Maybe there is even a funny version of the explanation out there too?
Air from your mouth goes over the ramp (blade, whatever) and produces sound.
Well, here’s my take on it.
Air from your mouth is shaped by the windway and is directed over the blade. Just like a wing on a plane, the air moves faster of the longer or curved surface of the blade then it does over the shorter surface…this is the Bournelli effect which is also why planes fly. This motion of air produces turbulence behind the blade, which sets the column of air inside the whistle in motion. That’s the “whistle” part.
The finger holes on all woodwinds (which includes whistle) serve to effectively shorten and lengthen the tube to get the different notes of the scale.
With all fingers down, the tube is at its longest, its “sounding length.” This is D. Lift one finger for E, and the effective end of the tube is now somewhere between the end of the whistle and the open hole. Lift two fingers, the effective end moves up the whistle again for F-sharp, and so forth.
That’s my take on it.
Now as to what makes a whistle sound like a whistle…the fine fine tolerances especially of the fipple (mouthpiece) serve to make the sound either pure or airy or brittle or chiffy or raspy, and determine whether it’s loud or soft, has much backpressure, a little, or none at all, how easily it flips into the second octave, rather it goes shrill at the high end, how strong the lowest notes are–these all have to be balanced out by the maker or designer. Some of the tolerances involved are finer than one-thousandth of an inch.
–James
Philosophically speaking, a whistle is a fipple flute that
isn’t a recorder. That’s just as well. Playing
recorder gives one hairy fingerpads.
Jim, that’s just a myth! Playing recorder doesn’t make you go blind, either. 
Playing recorder is a normal, healthy solitary activity…it’s just something we do in private because often we find nobody really wants to see or hear us do it. Most musicians don’t admit it, but polls tell us almost everybody does it. 
Think of recorder playing as learning the basics of a language…then playing the whistle in session would be having a conversation! 
–James
By the way, I like recorders just fine, own a few nice ones, and many many moons ago used to play in the Monroe Consort. So there.
\ /\ /\ /\ /
/ / / /
Essentially the wind moves like this. BUT REALLY REALLY FAST.
And It is probably more acurate to say that the “peaks” are where pressure is greatest, and the “troughs” are where it is lowest as apposed to physically moving up and down.
Thanks for the replies. A little bit of everything.
Mouth-blown wind instruments in general are indeed unique in all the music world, possibly magical, even, because of the metaphysical paradox one actualizes in playing them: one blows into them and yet one can still suck at the same time. I’ve meditated on this for years and have given up any hope of comprehending.
Hardly unique. There are more paradoxa out there in the world of music. I knew a fiddler once, he played The Flogging Reel on his fiddle with a blow AND he blew it.
Bloomfield, have you noticed the curious phenomenon that women seem to love playing the Flogging Reel, and with relish? It gives me pause.
No, I got paws 
Methinks they’re thinking of what they’d like to do to anyone who paws 'em when they play it.
Which they usually do with an instrument. (How do you play with relish, anyway? Food fight?)
Hardly paradoxical. I suggest that the above feat would be just another case of multitasking.
(hope you don’t mind my editing your post a bit)
So YOU were the one destined to take the bait! 
This is (mostly) an Irish music group - not Highland Scots. So there can be MORE than one.
(Manfully resisting the urge to use “bait” in a pun)
Recorder can be solo, but is definitely best with others. My wife and I play in a consort along with another recorder, plus harpsichord and viola da gamba, and when we’re clicking it’s amazing. Like a mini Baroque orchestra.
By the way, the way whistles work is very simple: it’s magic…
I used to play in the Monroe Consort with three other musicians, all of which were extremely advanced players. I was the only student; the rest were faculty. It was a great honor–and quite a challenge to “keep up” with them musically. Many many years ago…
Playing recorder in groups was a wonderful experience. I have lost most of my recorder skills; at that time (mid-80’s) I was far more advanced on recorder than I am with Irish music now. When I left college, for years I didn’t touch a flute, or recorder, or darn near any instrument…which I deeply regret, as it was to the vast detriment of my abilities.
At any rate, my post was not serious; I was simply extending Jim’s joke comparing playing the recorder to other “solitary pursuits.” 
The good news is I find Irish music every bit as satisfying as early music and HIP. There is a deep satisfaction to playing this music, and it is an addiction: once you start there’s no going back.
I do sometimes miss those soaring, open, ethereal harmonies of the High Renaissance, though.
So…one of the first things we did when we put the band together was break one of the “rules” and start developing melodic harmonies for our arrangements of slow pieces…hence the “Arran Boat” recording that folks still sometimes email me about.
–James
I am guessing that a r######r makes its sound the same way as a whistle since they are made in a similar fashion.
Not. Playing rcrd*r requires a pact with Satan. Trust me on this.