Tuning fork vibration in water full#

When you hold the stem of the tuning fork to a table, an axial motion in the stem connects to the tabletop. You can hear it, but it is not a very efficient conversion of the mechanical vibration into acoustic pressure. The pressure waves in the air propagate as sound. When you hold a vibrating tuning fork in your hand, the bending motion of the prongs sets the air around them in motion. As it turns out, the explanation behind this mystery can be boiled down to nonlinear solid mechanics. When you strike a tuning fork and hold it against a tabletop, it seems to double in frequency. In a recent video on YouTube from standupmaths, science enthusiasts Matt Parker and Hugh Hunt discuss and demonstrate the “mystery” of a tuning fork. In this blog post, we explain the tuning fork mystery using simulation and provide some fun facts about tuning forks along the way. Subscribe here.When a tuning fork is struck, and held against a tabletop, the peak frequency of the emitted sound doubles - a mysterious behavior that has left many people baffled.

Tuning fork vibration in water full#

Join Hands-On Teaching Ideas to gain access to my Free Resource Library filled with lots of printable learning resources, from a choice board full of STEM activities for kids to escape room games, you can download anything that interests you for your classroom or home. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases and I may earn a small commission at no cost to you. Happy experimenting!įor your convenience, this post contains affiliate links. This sound experiment is an easy way to show kids that sound causes vibrations/movement. When the fork is touched to the water it makes the water splash out of the bowl. Make sure to only touch the water, and not the container. Repeat the experiment above by banging the tuning fork and then touch it to the container with water. I also added a few drops of food coloring just for fun. If you have all of the materials for the fork a sound experiment, all you need extra to do another experiment is water!Īs an extension, you can remove the plastic wrap and fill the glass bowls with water. The tuning fork experiment sparked so much interest in my classroom that I wanted to extend our activity for another science lesson. We added a few small pompoms on top to test if the vibrations could still make the extra weight of the pompom bounce. Once they have guessed, they are ready to do the experiment. They make a guess what will happen once they touch the tuning fork to the plastic wrap. The rice will go flying!!! (But that’s also the fun of the experiment.)Ĭhildren then pour the rice onto the plastic wrap. You only need a small amount for each group.Īlso, the more rice you give each group the more clean up there will be. I then gave each group a small container of rice. Each group got a container with the plastic wrap stretched across it. Next, children went to the tables with a small group. Also make sure they are not banging it on anything that could break.) (I would suggest making sure to tell children not to hit the tuning forks too hard. When it stopped vibrating, the sound also stopped.Ĭhildren then each had a chance to gently try out the tuning forks. We talked about the fact that when it was vibrating, it was making a sound. They were able to feel that it was vibrating, but as soon as they touched the tuning fork the vibrations stopped. I had a child beside me gently touch the fork. We could hear a bit of a sound coming from the fork.

I gently banged one of the forks onto the carpet and held it up. Some recognized the fork being used in their music class before. To start, I introduced the children to tuning forks. The wrap has to be tight or the experiment will not work. The smaller the groups the better.Ĭover each container tightly with plastic wrap.

Since I did this experiment with several groups, I had several containers ready to go.

Uncooked rice or Large Sparkles (I added some food coloring to mine, but the color is just for fun.).

Also, kids of all ages are able to get hands-on and do the experiment. This is perhaps my favorite sound experiment for kids! I love the excitement that it causes and the ‘explosive’ result. This was a great chance to discuss echoes and how sound bounces. Some students even noticed the slinky bounce back after reaching the student holding the other end of the slinky. The slinky is just a fun way to show what we can’t otherwise see. Also, it is important that children know that sound waves are invisible. The main idea you want to make clear is that sound travels in waves.