Mac air is making constant, strange noises!

hello.  i have macbook air 13". late 2010 model.  today, literally from out of nowhere, it keeps putting off sounds as if somebody's "scratching" a rap tune...if that makes sense?  i have no idea what is going on.  can someone help?
thanks so much!

thank you, jason! 
i hadn't even considered that info you gave me about the forum here.  it probably should have been obvious but it never occurred to me.  so thanks for breaking it down.
as for the noise.  yes, it is coming from the speakers.  i have not plugged a headset in so i can't answer that question. i will keep a set nearby and plug it in if/when i hear it again. 
the first time i heard it, i was checking email, reading some news articles etc.  nothing unusual. 
i will say, and this may or may not have a thing to do with it but you would likely know more than i would, i had been shooting some photos onto a memory stick earlier.  when i removed the stick from my camera and put it in my mac, i noticed the memory stick was a psp memory stick and not my customary one.  the photos were on it so i went ahead and downloaded them.  is it possible there was some sort of sound scheme on it that i downloaded without realizing it? 
at the moment, i am not hearing the sound but i have just logged on after several hours.  i did not hear it earlier today either, after a night offline.  last night, after i ran the repair disk, i did stay online for a while and never heard it again.
again, i appreciate your input very much and will keep the headphones nearby so i can plug them in if need be and respond to those questions.  if you have any other thoughts.......please do share.  as you correctly surmised, i am a complete newbie....not only to this forum but to the world of mac in general!

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