Friday, April 1, 2011

Tuning Fork Lab



Jan Marek
7.A
Due: 4/4/11


Tuning Fork Lab
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Guiding Question:

How does density of various solids affect the way the sound waves travel from the tuning fork?


Hypothesis:

Jan: I believe that the denser the material is, the harder it will be for the sound to travel through and it will be partially blocked out, causing the sound to be softer and shorter-lasting.


Exploration:

Materials:
  • “426.6 A” Tuning Fork
  • “256 C” Tuning Fork
  • A Locker
  • A Whiteboard
  • A Desk
  • A Wall



Procedure:
  1. Take a “426.6 A” Tuning Fork
  2. Stroke it against the locker
  3. Listen to the sounds
  4. Repeat steps 1-3 using different tuning forks and materials




Record and Analyze:

Data Table:

Material
Density
Loudness with 426.6 A tuning fork
Length with 426.6 A tuning fork
Loudness with 256 C tuning fork
Length  with 256 C tuning fork
Locker
7.85 g/cm3
Really loud and very sharp, it hurts your ears
Lasts for about 30 seconds.
Not as loud as the other fork, doesn’t hurt your ears.
Lasts for about 24 seconds
Whiteboard
2.8 g/cm3
Loud same as locker
Lasts for about 17 seconds.
Also much quieter and lower.
Lasts for about 14 seconds.
Desk
0.75 g/cm3
Much louder and hallow song it is deeper. You can hear it without having to put your ear near the fork
Lasts for 15 seconds
You have to actually put your ear to the fork to hear the sound and listen intently
Lasts for about 11 seconds
Wall
3.12 g/cm3
Quieter than other materials you have to listen closely
Lasts 16 seconds
Much quieter you can almost not hear the sound but you can feel the vibrations.
Lasts 15 seconds





Data Analysis:

We have observed that in general as the density of the material increased, the length and the loudness of the sound increased too. I believe that this is because the denser materials have more particles for the sound to shake and for the waves to bounce off. This way they can travel more easily. The length of the sound could also be because the denser objects will hold the sound longer.


Conclusion:

My hypothesis was: “I believe that the denser the material is, the harder it will be for the sound to travel through and it will be partially blocked out, causing the sound to be softer and shorter-lasting.” But as I have mentioned in my data analysis above, it seems that in a denser material, the sound waves travel more efficiently. This means that my hypothesis was incorrect. There are some exceptions in our results such as the desk, which is not very dense but it’s sound was very long lasting.