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.