"The Tuning Fork"

I thouroughly enjoyed today's class period. We first went through the reading guide and then went on to participate in a fun filled experiment. This experiment was called "The Tuning Fork" and was by far the most fun experiment that we have done all year. Our group first struck the tuning fork against the wooden block and then dipped the ends of the tuning fork into a little glass of water. It was very cool becuase as soon as the tuning fork hit the water, it created ripples in the water. We then struck the tuning fork again and then touched the ends of the tuning fork to a piece of paper and hurd a sizzle. Then we struck the tuning fork against the wooden block and placed the ends of the tuning fork against our cheecks. This was a very interesting feeling becuase it sort of tickled your cheeks in a way. We then moved onto a different exercise with the tuning fork that involved one's ears. We struck the tuning fork and then placed it up to one another's ear and heard a lot of vibrations. Then we struck the tuning fork and held it into a long tube which created an obnoxiously loud sound. It was so loud that it hurt my ears in a way and also my partners ears. The next exercise dealt with the tuning fork and water. Before presenting the tuning fork into the exercise, we did a few things with out fingers and a stethoscope. Then we moved onto the interesting part where we taped our fingers underwater and then listened with the stethoscope in the water. The sound that it produced were somewhat similar to chants that Indians would do during a ceremony or special events. The sound was also somewhat comparable to someone tapping the drums. The next exercise we did dealt with glass bottles and a mallet. The materials person in our group filled three glass bottles with water, all of different amounts. At first all of the group members closed their eyes while one person struck a bottle with the mallet and we had to tell that person if the pitch was high or low. The person then struck a different bottle and then asked us what bottle we thought had a higher pitch. We then opened our eyes and then hit the bottles with the mallet again to see for ourselves which bottle had the higher pitch. It was interesting to see that the bottle that had the most water, had the lowest pitch and the bottle with the least amount of water had the highest pitch. I really enjoyed this exercise just as I enjoyed the others. As already mentioned, this was by far my favorite lab and I know that my students would enjoy it as much as I did!