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Abstract
The experiment aims to determine the speed, frequency and beat frequency
of various sounds or waves produced by tuning forks and snapping of
fingers. These sounds were measured and graphed in a Pressure vs. Time
plot. The experimental periods for different cases were used to compare the
theoretical frequency to the calculated frequency. The speed of sound was
calculated to be 342.18 m/s. The calculated frequencies of the tuning forks
were found to be 375 Hz and 500 Hz with 2.34 % error from the theoretical
for both frequencies. The beat frequency was observed to be 130 Hz and has
an error of 1.56 %. It shows that the data gathered coincides with expected
values.
1. Introduction
Sound is a longitudinal wave in a medium. [1] The sound has many applications, especially in mans survival.
The sensitive human ear detects sound without seeing from where it originates, and this ability helped human
being discern whether it signaled danger or not. Acoustic engineers apply the physics of sound waves to
improve the acoustics of the cathedrals and concert halls; aviation engineers study the shockwave produced by
supersonic aircraft; medical researches study how noises produced by the heart and lungs can tell a medical
problem; military engineers study how a soldier could find the direction a snipers location by the sound it
makes; these and countless applications make the study of sound essential. [2]
The speed of sound is given by:
v=
(1)
B
where B is the bulk modulus and is the equilibrium density of the medium. B is given by:
P
B=
V /V
(2)
where P is pressure change and V /V is fractional volume change. [3] Changes in the temperature
of the medium affects the motion of the sound. For example, sound travels faster in warm air than in cold air. [4]
When the interference, which is the overlapping of two different waves in the same region of space, occurs
between two waves with slightly different frequencies, the resulting wave is a wave with varying amplitudes,
which causes variations in loudness, a phenomenon called beats. [1] The beat frequency is given by:
f beat =f bf a
(3)
where f a and f b are the frequencies of the two waves that overlapped, f a being the higher to
yield a positive result for the beat frequency. Given the equations for the speed of sound and the beat frequency,
what is the speed of sound at a given temperature and what is the beat frequency of the resulting wave from the
interference of two waves with slightly different frequencies?
The aim of this study are to determine the speed of sound experimentally at a certain temperature; to
measure the frequency of two tuning forks experimentally; and to measure experimentally the beat frequency of
the resulting wave from the interference of the waves produced by two tuning forks; and compare the resulting
values to their respective theoretical values.
2. Methodology
1 0.0053 s
2 0.0054 s
1.882 m 21.5 0C
3 0.0058 s
The echo time was measured by recording the time interval between the two peaks of the Pressure vs. Time
graph for the snapping of fingers (Figure 1).
At 0 0C, the accepted speed of sound is 331.5 m/s and increases 0.607 m/s for every 0C. Using dimensional
analysis, the theoretical value for the speed of sound at 21.5 0C is 344.55 m/s. The experimental speed of sound
at 21.5 0C is 342.18 m/s. This shows that the measured value only has a .68% deviation from the actual value.
The deviation from the actual speed of sound may be caused by noisy surroundings, making the sound recorded
by the vernier microphone inaccurate and the fact that the Vernier LabQuest is hard to operate since it doesnt
notify the user when it is recording made the data collection not easy.
The second part of the experiment measured the frequency of two tuning forks with different frequencies and
the beat frequency of the two. The measured frequency of the two tuning forks was summarized in Table 2. It
shows the calculated frequency doesnt have a big percentage error when compared to the theoretical frequency
of the tuning forks. It was also observed from the experiment placing the tuning forks farther away from the
microphone alters the amplitude of the graph but doesnt change the frequency recorded. This is because the
distance between the tuning fork and microphone does not affect the frequency since frequency is only affected
by time.
The beat frequency of the two tuning forks was calculated by getting the absolute value of the difference of
the two tuning forks with different frequencies. Three trials were performed to calculate the experimental value
of the beat frequency and the data were recorded in Table 3. It can be seen from the table that the experimental
value and the theoretical value are not that far away from each other. The graph of Pressure vs. Time of sound
created by the two tuning forks was also plotted in Figure 2. The figure shows a pattern with alternating small
and big amplitudes. The time interval between one cycle, big crest to another big crest, was the recorded period
in Table 3. The graph shows random pressure peaks which might be caused by sound waves produced by the
noisy environment because in a real world, complete silence is unachievable.
1 0.0028 0.0028
1 0.0027 0.0027
1 0.0019 0.0019
Beat
Number of Average Calculated Percent
Frequency t (s) Period (s)
Cycles Period (s) Frequency (Hz) Error (%)
|f1 - f2|
1 0.0077 0.0077
1 0.0077 0.0077
128 0.00767 130 1.56 %
1 0.0076 0.0076
Figure 2: Pressure vs. Time graph for the two tuning forks
5. References
[1]
Young, Hugh D. Freedman, Roger. University Physics with Modern Physics 10 th ed.
[2]
Walker, Jearl. Fundamentals of Physics 10th ed.
[3]
Tipler, Paul. Mosca, Gene. Physics for Scientists and Engineers 6 th ed.
[4]
Vergara, William C. Sound and Ultrasonics. The New Book of Knowledge Vol. 17