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Physics Lab

The document describes an experiment to determine the speed of sound in air using mechanical resonance in a closed pipe. A tuning fork of known frequency is sounded over the mouth of the pipe. By adjusting the air column length, a loud resonant sound is heard when the air column matches half wavelengths of the sound wave. Using the resonance formula, the speed of sound can be calculated from the tuning fork frequency and resonant air column length. The experiment found the speed of sound to be 338 m/s, close to the 348 m/s calculated by a temperature method. Differences are due to factors like temperature affecting molecular vibration and sound speed.

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89 views

Physics Lab

The document describes an experiment to determine the speed of sound in air using mechanical resonance in a closed pipe. A tuning fork of known frequency is sounded over the mouth of the pipe. By adjusting the air column length, a loud resonant sound is heard when the air column matches half wavelengths of the sound wave. Using the resonance formula, the speed of sound can be calculated from the tuning fork frequency and resonant air column length. The experiment found the speed of sound to be 338 m/s, close to the 348 m/s calculated by a temperature method. Differences are due to factors like temperature affecting molecular vibration and sound speed.

Uploaded by

Drumz Staff
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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S.B.

A #:

Date: 07/04/2019

Title: mechanical resonance in a closed pipe

Aim: To determine the speed of sound in air by using the resonance of a column of air in a closed pipe.

Hypothesis: If a vibrating tuning fork, of known frequency, is sound over the mouth of a closed tube then
by raising or lowering the air column inside the tube until a loud sound is heard would be due to the
strong resonance of the air column in tube. Thus the speed of sound can be found using the V=4fL,
where ‘L’ is the air column inside the tube.

Materials/Apparatus:

 Measuring cylinder
 Water
 Plastic open pipe
 Clamp Stand
 Tuning fork of known frequency

Observations:

It was observed that when the ‘F 341.3 Hz’ tuning fork was sounded at the mouth of the pipe
with a small air column, there wasn’t any sound. However, by increasing the air column, the sound heard
in the pipe was increasing with the loudest being at the length of 24.8cm.

Discussion:

A sound wave is a longitudinal wave in which the wave oscillates along the direction of
propagation. Resonance is the increase of the amplitude of oscillations until some maximum value when
the frequency, f, of the driving force is the same of the own natural frequency of the system, f 0. For this
experiment, the speed of sound in air was found by using tuning forks of known frequency, and by
making use of the resonance of an air column in a closed piped.

When the tuning fork was struck, it vibrated and sound waves were generated. These sound
waves travelled down the tube and were reflected upon reaching the surface of the water. The incoming
and reflected waves interfered and formed standing waves. The sound waves reflected from the water
surface changed their phase by 180° and therefore are completely out of phase with the incident sound
waves. In other words, the amplitude of the standing waves was absolutely zero at the water's surface.
This point in space is usually referred to as a node. Since a resonance condition was met, the open end
of the tube had a maximum amplitude of standing sound waves and is called an anti-node.

Using the temperature method, the speed of sound in the experimental room air was found to
be 348 meters per second while using the sound resonance method the speed of the sound was found
to be the 338 meters per second. The difference for these results was due to different factors, one of
which was temperature. Temperature is also a condition that affects the speed of sound. Heat, like
sound, is a form of kinetic energy. Molecules at higher temperatures have more energy, thus they can
vibrate faster. Since the molecules vibrate faster, sound waves can travel more quickly.

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