Experiment No.

6 Resonance: The Speed of Sound Abstract A sound wave is a pressure disturbance that travels through a medium by means of particle-toparticle interaction. As one particle becomes disturbed, it exerts a force on the next adjacent particle, thus disturbing that particle from rest and transporting the energy through the medium. Like any wave, the speed of a sound wave refers to how fast the disturbance is passed from particle to particle. While frequency refers to the number of vibrations that an individual particle makes per unit of time, speed refers to the distance that the disturbance travels per unit of time. The speed of sound is about 343.2 metres per second (in 20oC). Formal Report Questions 1. Through what fraction of a vibration has the prong of a tuning fork moved while the sound traveled down to the water surface inside the pipe and was reflected back up the fork again? As the sound traveled through the cylinder, it traveled of wave while going down and another going up, showing that the tuning fork vibrated of the frequency. 2. What is the approximate wavelength of the fundamental frequency of a closed tube 35.0 cm long if the tube has a diameter of 4.000 cm? Formula: = 4L 4 (35.0 cm) = 140 cm = 140 cm 3. A tuning fork of frequency 384 Hz exhibits resonance with a closed tube 20.0 cm long and 4.000 cm in diameter. What is the speed of the sound wave? Formula: V = f Given: f = 384Hz L=20.0cm 1) Solve for = 4L = 4(20cm) = 80cm 2) V= 80cm (384Hz) = 30,720 cm/s 3) Conversion of cm/s to m/s 30,720 cm x 0.01m 1 cm 1 sec

V = 307.20 m/s