Sound Waves and Resonance

• Pre-Lab Checklist
• Experiment Notes: Things to keep in mind while performingthe experiment.
• Analysis Notes: Questions to answer in your analysis of theexperiment.
• Return to Physics Lab home page.

Pre-Lab Checklist

1. In your own words, describe the system to be studied.

2. List and define all of the parameters to be measured directly.

3. List any quantities to be calculated.

4. List any graphs that will be created during the analysis of thisexperiment.

Experiment Notes

1. Do NOT strike the tuning forks on hard surfaces. Only use therubber mallets.

2. Because a number of different lab groups will be using the same tuningfork frequencies at the same time, it may be difficult for you to tell whichone is yours. If that is the case, move your apparatus out into the halway toget further from other groups.

3. It is often beneficial to make several passes through the resonance pointto get a more accurate location for the resonance point. Firstly let the watermove fairly quickly and listen for the rise and fall of the sound coming out ofthe tube. Be sure to watch the water level and not the region where the soundwas louder. Then go back to that region and change the water level very slowlyuntil you find the exact resonance position.

Analysis Notes

1. You will not be writing a formal report for this experiment. Rather, youwill be answering the following questions and submitting them to your TA as youleave the room. Have a great Christmas Break.

2. Calculate the velocity of sound using the measured room temperature.

3. What are the uncertainties in this value of the speed of sound? What isthe experimental % error here?

4. Calculate (L₂ - L₁) for four different tuning forks of different frequencies. How did the value of (L₂ - L₁) change as you changed frequencies? (Show an example calculation here.)

5. Calculate the wavelength for each of the tuning forks and then calculatethe speed of sound from each set of data. (Show an example calculation here.)

6. Find the average value of the speeds calculated in #5 above. (Show your calculation here.)

7. What are the uncertainties in this value of the speed of sound? What isthe experimental error?

8. Do your two values of the speed of sound (#2 and #6) agree withinexperimental error?

9. Explain the design of a musical instrument (you can choose which one -ex:violin, piano, flute, trombone, etc.) in terms of what you have seen in labtoday. Discuss the size of the instrument relative to the pitch it produces.