LAB FOR EVERYONE

Start on this today/this evening. At least start thinking about how you'll do everything, and about what you expect, and how you'll do the required calculations. You might want to choose a part of the lab for which you'll take particular responsibility.

1. Work with those plain plastic tubes. Is the fundamental frequency what it's claimed to be? (Each tube claims to be one of the popular notes of the scale.) Calculate the expected frequency, taking account of both the length and the radius of the tube. Do this for both the open and the semi-closed conditions, for at least two different length tubes.

2. What is the length of the recorder? Where exactly is the end that's nearest your mouth? Where is the end of the fife? The flute?

3. Carefully measure the frequencies emitted by the big yellow horn. Is this instrument open at both ends? Is it conical?

4. Put some water into a water bottle (probably a commercial kind, with the relatively small opening). Determine whether the fundamental frequency depends on volume or on the shape of the volume.

5. Finally, is the speed of sound here what you'd calculate using the formula in the book?