Experiment 4: Resonance of an Air Column

Lab Description:
The experiment in this lab helped deepen our understanding of the affects of
resonance of sound waves in a column of air. When a system is driven at a natural
frequency, there is a maximum energy transfer and the vibrational amplitude increases to
a maximum. As an application of resonance, in this experiment the speed of sound in air
will be determined by driving an air column in resonance. To study resonance in this
experiment, the length L of an air column will be varied for a given driving frequency.
This experiment uses frequencies of 512 Hz, 480 Hz, 426.7 Hz, 384 Hz, 341.3 Hz, 320
Hz, and 288 Hz. By pulling out the small column and listening to the successive strongest
sounds determined the wavelength of the air column. As the length of the air column is
increased, more wavelength segments will fit into the tube, consistent with the nodeantinode requirements at the ends.
In this experiment we measured the wavelength L and frequency f for a number of
waves and used the data to determine the speed of sound in air. After obtaining this result,
we compared it to the following equation
v = 331.4 m/s + (0.6 m/s ) T c
Where T c = temperature of air in .

Procedure:
We first determined the wavelength for each tuning fork starting at 512 Hz. While
one partner strikes the tuning fork on one side of the air column, the other partner places
his/her ear near the end of the small pipe on the other side and slowly moves the small
pipe out while listening to the strength of the sound. The person listening to the sound
signals when the sound is the strongest so that the other partner can record the distance
between successive positions of the end of the air columns at which standing waves are
established. We then multiplied the distance by two in correspondence to their
frequencies to find . We made a table for values of and 1/f. After calculating
these values we plot them on vs. 1/f and find the slope of the graph to equal v.
Using the following equation, v = 331.4 m/s + (0.6 m/s ) T c , we
obtained a value for v when the temperature of the room equaled 21.5 . Both values
of v and v should agree with each other. Finally, we find the percentage error between v
and v.

Data/Calculations:
[m]

1/f[1/Hz]
1/512=.00195

(2).34=.68

1/480=.00208

(2).39=.78

1/426.7=.00234

(2).41=.82

1/384=.00260

(2).49=.98

1/341.3=.00293

(2).495=.99

1/320=.003125

(2).55=1.1

1/288=.00347

(2).625=1.25

v = 331.4 m/s + (0.6 m/s ) T c

= 331.4 m/s + (0.6 m/s ) (21.5)
= 344.3 m/s
v = slope of best fit line on

vs. 1/f graph = 345.467 m/s

Percentage Error:
% error = [(v v) / v]

100

= [( 345.467 344.3 ) / 345.467] * 100 = .338 %