Tuning forks lab

GUIDING QUESTION/S:

How does density of various solids affect the way the sound waves travel from the tuning fork?

HYPOTHESIS:  

Lukas Hypothesis: I believe that the denser solids increase the speed of a sound wave. There for the various solids will cause the sound to travel faster through the sound fork, because it takes shorter for the sound to get to the fork itself.

Exploration:

          Materials:  

Test Surfaces:

1.Wooden table

2. Wooden Door

3.Clothe chair (reinforced with metal inside)

4. Steel Drawer

5.Metal heater

Other Materials:

1.    Laptop or notebook

2.    Pencil and eraser

3.    Tuning fork

Controlled variables:

The distance from the tuning fork to the ear and the frequency of the tuning fork

Manipulated variables: The different surfaces you use to produce the sound.

Responding variable: Loudness and Pitch.

                                   

          Procedure:

First: Open your laptop or notebook and make a tale with 3 columns, name them, Test Surface, Density and Observations

Second: Write in the names of the surfaces you are testing, unless changing the original ones, copy them down from the test surfaces section above.

Third: Write down the density of each material you test, either write, low density, high density or write them with numbers such as 3.4 g/cm3

Fourth: Hit the tuning fork against each surface and then listen to the sound the tuning fork makes, record your observations in the data table.

Material	Density	Observations
Wooden table	High density	Higher pitch, not very loud
Wooden door	High-really high density	High pitch, heard all over the room
Clothe chair (reinforced with metal)	Medium-low density	Low pitch, not heard
Steel drawer	Low density, really hollow	Low pitch, barely heard,
Metal heater	Medium density, makes echo when hit	Low pitch, barely heard.

Analysis of data:

From the data table above I can conclude that sound travels faster through objects with a greater density, than through objects with lower density. Also elasticity of the material plays its role in the speed hear because the cloth chair absorbed a lot of the impact from the tuning fork there for the sound wasn’t that loud.

Luka’s Conclusion:

I think that the greater amount of density an object has will positively affect the speed at which the sound travels from it. The different materials we used caused the sound to travel faster through the tuning fork. I can conclude this because of the fact that the data table supports my conclusion. The best example would be the wooden door it is dense and made a loud high pitch sound, this means that it traveled faster through the fork, while the low density steel drawer made a soft barely heard noise of low pitch. This proves that sound does travel faster through higher density objects.

Further Inquiry: After completing the lab I had some doubts about whether the speed of the sound wave affects the pitch of the sound. After some intense research I concluded that the speed at which sound travels has nothing to do with the pitch. The only thing that affects the pitch is the material, which you hit the fork against.