Lab # Resonant Thermometer Objective: Measure the temperature of a room with only a tuning fork and a tube of water.

Materials: Tuning fork, small tube open on both ends, larger tube closed on one end, ruler or meter stick. Procedure: 1. The lab equipment that you will need is two tubes and a tuning fork. Of the two tubes, fill the larger one with water. 2. Place the smaller diameter tube inside the larger one. The water in the large tube will work as an adjustable closed end to the smaller tube. 3. Set the tuning fork into vibrating by striking it against a rubber stopper, the rubber bottom of a soft shoe, or against your skin. Do NOT strike the tuning fork on any hard surface, as the tuning fork may shatter or chip. 4. Place the tuning fork over the mouth of the smaller open pipe, and raise or lower the pipe until a standing wave or resonance is made in the pipe. Measure the length of the pipe. This should be the smallest possible distance, so that the wavelength corresponds with the fundamental for the pipe. Hint: If the outer tube is opaque, you may wish to refill the large tube with water to its top. This will ease measuring the length of the smaller tube. 5. Calculate the wavelength of the wave. The equation that relates length and wavelength with a diameter correction is = 4(L + 0.4d), where L is the length and d is the diameter of the pipe. 6. Use the frequency stamped on the tuning fork and the wavelength found in step #5 to calculate the speed of sound in the pipe. v = f 7. Calculate the kelvin temperature of the room from the speed of sound.

) v = ( 331 m s

TK 273

8. Convert the accepted room temperature into kelvins, and find the absolute and relative error. O A Converting to kelvins gives a realistic error estimate for the procedure. Er = A 9. Repeat the above procedure with the tuning forks of different frequencies found on other lab stations. There will be at least four different tuning forks distributed throughout the lab stations. 10. Organize your data into a data table. Data: d = __________
f L

accepted T = _________oC = __________ K

v T, Kelvins % Error

Analysis:

1. Calculate the average of your temperature values.

M =

O
N

each

2. Calculate the absolute deviation of your measurements.

Da each = Oeach M

3. Calculate the average of your absolute deviations.

Da =

Da
N

each

4. Calculate the relative deviation of your measurements.

Dr = Da

5. Through what fraction of a vibration has the prong of the lowest frequency tuning fork moved while the sound wave traveled down to the surface of the water and was reflected back up to the tuning fork?

6. If a longer small tube were available, would it be possible to find another position where resonance is produced? Explain. 7. How would you modify the experiment to determine whether water vapor inside the tube affects the results?

8. How does the amplitude of vibration affect the data? Verify your answer by experimentation.

9. How would you modify the experiment to find the resonant length of an open pipe?

10. An observer sees a flash of light from a distant thunderstorm and 12 s later hears the sound of thunder. If the temperature of the air is 20 degrees, how far from the storm is the observer?