 Analogy is a powerful tool in science. In physics, for example, atoms have been visualized as everything from balls on springs to soap bubbles to help scientists understand how real materials behave. In this spirit of simplification, researchers recently exploited the analogy between electron waves and sound waves to design an acoustic model of exotic materials called topological insulators. The model could largely recreate the fundamental behavior of these materials, even giving rise to the same strange phenomenon called a vial point. The model is therefore expected to make the study of topological insulators more accessible while also offering up interesting applications of its own. Topological insulators are special materials that have the ability to conduct charge along their edges but not through their interior. Charges are shuttled along a one-way path without bouncing off defects or impurities. The discovery of materials that can behave as topological insulators, such as bismuth telluride and mercury telluride, has greatly simplified how this peculiar charge conduction scheme can be studied. Unlike their predecessors, which often required strong magnetic fields, specially designed cooling systems and powerful light sources to be tested, these materials are easy to handle and can be probed at room temperature. As it turns out, though, scientists can make the study of these materials even easier by replacing the complexity of electron waves with the simplicity of sound waves. In this study, this exchange was made by devising an acoustic analog to a traditional topological insulator. The material was conceived as a honeycomb network of cylinders filled with air and connected by tubes. These cylindrical nodes behaved as artificial atoms between which pseudocharges in the form of sound pressure could hop. The tubes linking the cylinders were arranged in a pinwheel pattern to force hopping to occur along a counterclockwise direction. The scattering of air through this configuration of tubes produced an acoustic version of the magnetic flux that pushes charges along the edges of conventional topological insulators. Simulations showed that the acoustic crystal even allowed for conduction through barriers such as corners and defects. But perhaps the most striking evidence of the correspondence between the acoustic waveguide network and its electronic counterpart was the generation of special mathematical constructs called vial points. Mathematically, vial points are equivalent to magnetic monopoles, hypothetical particles that behave like magnets with only a north or south pole. Although long theorized to exist, vial points were only recently detected experimentally in certain solid-state infotonic crystals. The observation of vial points in the present study represents the first time they have been generated in a three-dimensional acoustic crystal. The researcher's system is not the first acoustic topological system devised to date, but it is among the simplest because it is able to generate a synthetic flux without a constantly moving fluid. And it is this simplicity that makes it easier for results to be extended to electromagnetic and other classical waves. Because the system could serve as an acoustic material in its own right, the researchers also expect their findings to hold significant implications in the fields of sound signal processing and sound energy harvesting.