Question

Experiment to measure speed of sound in water

Answer 1

Speed of Sound Experiment Learning Outcome: To understand and calculate the speed of sound. You will need: • Tuning forks • Graded cylinders • Water • Metric ruler Method                                                                     1. Pour some water into a 500 ml graduated cylinder.                                   2. Tap the tuning fork on a soft surface and place it near the opening of the cylinder.                                                                                            3. When the sound gets loud, measure the distance from the top of the water level to the top of the cylinder. Record this distance. (If the sound does not get loud, experiment a bit, by adding or removing water and repeating steps 2 & 3.)                                                                                             4. Convert the distance you have recorded to meters.                                   5. Multiply the distance recorded by 4 to give you the wavelength of the sound wave.                                                                                                       6. Check out the number on the tuning fork, this is the frequency of the sound wave.                                                                                                       7. Now use the following equation to calculate the speed of the sound wave: The speed of any wave can be found with the equation: speed = frequency x wavelength 8. Record your answer as units of meters / second. _________________________________________________________________________________ Show your calculations here: 1. What have you observed? Repeat steps 1 – 8 with different tuning forks. Compare your findings with someone else. 2. How do they compare and what have you learned?