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In this lab we were using the principle of resonance to calculate the speed of sound. If a wave is traveling down something, like a string or a tube, and it hits the end it will repeat back. If the length is just right the wave will reflect back so it has nodes at exactly the same place traveling down as well as traveling back. When this happens the objet is ressonating. We used this idea when trying to find the speed of sound. By holding the tunding fork above the tube we were searching for the point where the sound waves had the same nodes on the way down as on the way back. When the length reached this point the wound was amplified, indicating it as length where the waves resonated. We found the first resonance of the tubes, this is where there is one quarter of a wave traveling down the tube and one quarter back. To calculate the speed of sound you calculate the wavelength and the frequncy. Due to measuring error we added .014 meters to each tube length and then did our calculatons. By multiplying the tube length (in meters) by four we got one full wavelength. We then multiplied it by the resonance as indicated on the tuning fork. This gave us the speed of sound. Our results are summarized in this data table. |
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