Experiment 1: Sound

By Shoumit Sarkar

1 PURPOSE
The goal of this experiment is to investigate the mechanical properties of sound. We
will find the speed of these sound waves using a mid and speaker.

2 PROCEDURE & DATA

Experiment 1:
We found the time it took for the 20 Hz sound to go from the mic to the piston and
back for 2 different positions of the piston.
Table 1: Results from two trials of Experiment 1

Piston position /m
0.3
0.8

t /s
8.012*10-4
4*10-3

Spike width /s
10-3
10-3

The sound wave had to move an extra 0.5 m to and from the piston. With this we
can find the speed:

t
1
( 2t 1)=
=312.62 m/s
3
410 8.012104
2 ( d 1d 2)
v=

Knowing that the theoretical speed of sound in air is 343 m/s, we can find the
percent error of our experimental result:

|TheoreticalExperimental
|100
Theoretical

error yield=

|343312.6
|100 =8.86
343
The signal detector also has some uncertainty in measuring the exact time that the
signal was detected. We can find the percent uncertainty by using the formula
given in the instructions:

spike width
100 =31.26
time delay between trials
This uncertainty is fairly low so we could accept our speed of sound.
Experiment 2
In this part we created standing waves for sounds at 450 Hz and we used the
microphone to find the correct spot to place the piston for a node. The sound was at
its highest intensity at 0.195 m or 0.58 m. The wavelength is the length between 3
nodes/antinodes so the distance 2 nodes is half the wavelength. So the wavelength
is

2|n1n 2|=2|0.150.55|= =0.8 m

We find the velocity of the sound wave using the formula:

v =f =4500.8=360 m/ s
Using the percent error equation from before, we find that we got a 4.96% error.
Experiment 3
We kept the speaker in one place but we moved the pistons to find places where the
sound waves would resonate for different frequencies. The wavelength is 2* the
difference between 2 different resonance points, so the wavelength is:

=2|n1n 2|
Next we found the speed of sound using each frequency and wavelength:

v =f
Table 2: Table of piston positions of resonance for frequencies 450Hz to 650Hz, and derived
wavelength & velocity

Frequency (Hz)
450
500
550
600
650

Hz
Hz
Hz
Hz
Hz

First
resonance (m)
0.19 m
0.13 m
0.14 m
0.115 m
0.11 m

Second
resonance (m)
0.58 m
0.48 m
0.46 m
0.385 m
0.37 m

Wavelength
(m)
0.78 m
0.70 m
0.64 m
0.54 m
0.52 m

Velocity
(m/s)
351 m/s
350 m/s
352 m/s
324 m/s
338 m/s

Over the 5 trials, the average speed of sound is 343 m/s which is very close to the
theoretical value with a standard deviation of 10.8 m/s.

Velocity v. Frequency
355
350
345
340
335

Velocity (m/s) 330

325
320
315
310
450

500

550

600

650

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 1: Graph of velocity against frequency

Wavelength v. Frequency
0.9
0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5

Wavelength (m)

0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
450

500

550

600

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 2: Graph of wavelength against frequency

650

From Figure 2, we can see that as the frequency increases, the wavelength drops.
So the product of the wavelength and the frequency stays constant; this is the wave
speed.

3 CONCLUSIONS
All 3 of our experiments were pretty successful.
From this experiment we learn that sound has both displacement and pressure
waves. When there is maximum displacement, there is a high pressure zone and
vice versa. At boundaries, the pressure of the sound wave has an antinode and
displacement has a node. Using this knowledge we were able to find the speed of
sound.
Also from figure 2, we can show that speed of sound is constant through a given
medium with constant environmental conditions.
Possible errors could include that the temperature of the room was not exactly
constant and also there was parallax error when measuring the distances.