CLASSROOM

Resonance Experiments Using

AFO Instead of Tuning Fork

Deepak H Gadani
Physics Department
C U Shah Science College
Ashram Road
Ahemedabad.

The experiments of resonance tube method and

resonator method are performed without using
the tuning fork. To generate audio vibrations,
a speaker connected with an AFO (Audio Frequency Oscillator) is employed. The experiments
thus becomes very easy and simple. More observations can be taken depending on the length of
the tube. The intensity of the sound can be controlled using AFO. The results are reliable.

Email:
dhgadani@yahoo.com

1. Resonance Tube Method

Theory
If the particles of a medium are oscillating in the direction of propagation of the wave, then such a wave is
called a longitudinal wave. Sound propagation in the air
medium is in the form of longitudinal waves. Sound can
travel through any material medium with a speed that
depends on the properties of the medium. As the wave
travels, the particles in the medium vibrate to produce
changes in density and pressure along the direction of
motion of the wave. These changes result in a series
of high-pressure and low-pressure regions. If the source
of the sound waves vibrates sinusoidally, the pressure
variations are also sinusoidal.
When two waves of equal wavelength and amplitude
propagating in opposite directions superimpose on each
other, then interference occurs and the resultant wave is
called a standing wave. In a standing wave the particles
of the medium at certain points do not oscillate. These
points are called nodes. At certain points the particles
of the medium have maximum amplitude of oscillation,
called antinodes. In standing (stationary) waves, the
distance between two consecutive nodes or antinodes is

RESONANCE November 2011

Keywords
Res onanc e, AFO , speaker,
sound.

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AFO
SPEAKER

Antinode

Length l cm

/2, whereas the distance between a node and the successive antinode is /4.
When the frequency of oscillation of the vibrating object
is equal to the natural frequency of the system, then
resonance occurs.

Node

Water

Figure 1. Experimental set

up for resonance tube
method using AFO.

As shown in Figure 1, a speaker is connected with an

AFO (Scientic SM 5071). When the speaker is kept
over the open end of a partially lled tube, then the
sound waves propagating in the tube are reected back
from the surface of the water. A standing wave pattern
is generated. If the frequency of the speaker is equal to
the natural frequency of the air column inside the tube,
then the node of the standing wave pattern is produced
at the water surface inside the tube and the antinode is
produced near the open end of the tube.
If l is the length of the air column at resonance, then
=4 = l . That is, = 4l . Hence the velocity of the
sound is V = n = 4nl , where n = frequency of oscillation of speaker = frequency of AFO. Rayleigh found
that the antinode point is actually produced at some
height above the open end of the tube. Hence adding
the end-correction in the air column length, which is
0.3d, we get L = l + 0:3 d , where d = inner diameter
of the tube.
Procedure
Required apparatus: Measuring cylinder/ test tube ,
speaker, AFO, stand.
Take a 50 ml measuring cylinder or a big test tube and
hold it vertical using a stand. Add some water in the
tube so that the horizontal surface of water is above the
rounded bottom. Stick a strip of graph paper or ruler
on the tube and mark a horizontal line corresponding
to the water level. Keep the speaker pointing towards
the open end of the test tube or cylinder. Connect the
speaker with a digital AFO. Switch on the AFO and

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vary the frequency. At a particular frequency you will

hear a whistling sound of resonance. Note down the frequency of AFO and length of air column in the tube
from the top end. Add some water in the tube. Vary
the frequency to hear resonance and measure the corresponding frequency and length of air column in the tube
from the top end. Repeat the experiment for dierent
lengths of air column in the tube from the top end.
Advantages of this Method
1. Students know that a speaker produces sound whereas with a tuning fork we have to tell them that it produces sound of particular frequency, which may not be
clearly audible.
2. There is no need to vary the height of the water to
match the frequency of the tuning fork.
3. For any length of air column, just by varying the frequency using AFO we can hear the sound of resonance;
so experimental procedure becomes more simple.
4. Sometimes at low frequency the sound intensity produced by a tuning fork is faint, so students have to hear
the sound by bringing their ear near the tube. Here the
intensity of sound can be increased by increasing the
voltage across the speaker using AFO.
5. A wide range of frequencies is available from an AFO
rather than the limited and xed values of frequencies
of tuning fork.
6. From the graph, the unknown frequency of a tuning
fork can be calculated by measuring its resonance length.
Results
Room Temperature = 30 o C
Inner diameter of cylinder d = 2.85 cm
Inner radius of cylinder = 1.425 cm.

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Table 1.

AFO
Frequency
n (Hz)

Length Revised
l (cm)
length
L = l + 0:3d

nL

490
521
553
629
729

16.6
15.6
14.4
12.4
10.5

17.5
16.5
15.3
13.2
11.4

8567.7
8573.1
8425
8312.2
8277.8

Sum (n L)
Average (n L)
V = 4 nL cm/sec

42156
8431.1
33725

The results are shown in Table 1. The velocity of sound

is found to be 33725 cm/sec. The variation of L with n
is shown in Figure 2.
2. Resonator Method
A similar experiment can be performed for `resonator
method' using a speaker connected with an AFO instead
of a tuning fork.
18
17

Length L cm

16
15
14
13
12
11
10

Figure 2. Graph of length L

vs frequency n.

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200

400

600

800

Frequency Hz

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Theory
Consider a bottle containing air and water, closed by a
piston P without friction in the neck of the bottle (see
Figure 3). Let
v = volume of the air in the bottle, below piston,
m = mass of the piston,
A = area of cross-section of the piston.
When the piston is in an equilibrium position, the outside pressure p0 , and the pressure inside the bottle p are
related by
pA = p0 A + mg :
(1)
If the piston is displaced downwards by distance x, considering adiabatic change, the new pressure p0 inside the
bottle will be
p0 (v Ax) = pv
(2)
Therefore,

v Ax
p=p
v

Ax
0
=p 1
:
v

Ax
Ax
0
p =p 1
p 1+
v
v
0

Figure 3.

(3)

(neglecting higher order terms).

That is,
p0 = p +

pA
x;
v

(4)

or

pA
x:
(5)
v
Therefore the total downward force by the piston is F =
mg + p0 A p0 A = pA p0 A using (1). If a denotes the
acceleration of the piston we have
p p0 =

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F = ma = (p p0)A . Using (5), this gives

F = ma =
d2 x
.
dt2
Therefore

pA2
x:
v

(6)

But a =

d2 x
pA2
=

x:
dt2
v

That is,
d2 x
pA2
=

x = 2x = i2 2 x ;
dt2
mv

(7)

pA2
, and i2 =1.
mv
The solution of (7) is
where 2 =

x = eit = cos t i sin t ;

(8)

which shows the simple harmonic motion of the piston

about equilibrium position x with angular frequency
r
pA2
!==
:
mv
Therefore

r
2
pA2
=
T
mv
which gives the periodic time of vibration about the
equilibrium position, as
r
mv
T = 2
:
(9)
pA2
In the above calculation we assumed the pressure to be
the same throughout the gas during the oscillations. Actually some time is required for the transmission of the

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pressure. From (9), the frequency of oscillation of piston

about the equilibrium position is
r
1
1 pA2
n= =
:
(10)
T
2
mv
Therefore
pA2
n2 = 2 ;
4 mv
that is
pA2
n2 v = 2 = constant :
(11)
4 m
In the actual experiment, the piston is replaced by the
layer of air in the neck of the bottle (Figure 4); resonance
is produced between it and a series of frequencies of the
AFO by pouring proper amount of water into it.
A graph of v vs 1=n2 is plotted (Figure 5). The plot
should be a straight line through the origin if the theory
is correct, but actually it will not pass through the origin
although the relation is nearly linear. Practically, the
curve will obey the relation

AFO
SPEAKER

Neck

Bottle

Figure 4. Experimental set

up for resonatorusing AFO.

n2 (v + c) = constant:
where c = correction to be applied to v (c depends on the
volume of the neck). This is called the neck correction,
and is the negative intercept on the horizontal axis in
Figure 5.
1.20E-05

y = 3E-08x + 7E-08
2

R = 0.9979

1.00E-05

1/n^2

8.00E-06
6.00E-06
4.00E-06
2.00E-06
0.00E+00
-50

50

-2.00E-06

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150
Volume cc

250

350

Figure 5.

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Vol
v (cc)

Frequency
n (Hz)

n2

1/n2

n2 (v + c)

45
62
81
108
134
164
194
229
271
314

816
700
581
524
462
433
390
366
332
307

665856
490000
337561
274576
213444
187489
152100
133956
110224
94249

1.502E-06
2.041E-06
2.962E-06
3.642E-06
4.685E-06
5.334E-06
6.575E-06
7.465E-06
9.072E-06
1.061E-05

3.6E-07
3.6E-07
3.6E-07
3.6E-07
3.6E-07
3.6E-07
3.6E-07
3.6E-07
3.6E-07
3.6E-07

29963520.24
30380000.18
27342441.12
29654208.1
28601496.08
30748196.07
29507400.05
30675924.05
29870704.04
29594186.03

Sum
Average

296338076
29633807.6

From this graph one can obtain the unknown frequency

of a tuning fork if resonance is obtained.

Table 2.

The results are shown in Table 2.

Suggested Reading
[1]

M M Gor, C Chauhan, M Dhandhala and S Patel, Practical Physics and

Record Book, Gujarat State School Textbook Association, Gandhinagar,
2009.

[2]

B L Worsnop and H T Flint, Advanced Practical Physics for Students,

Khosla Publishing House, Delhi, pp.455457, 1991.

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