Lab Experiment

Resonance in Air Column (2)

Student Name: __________________________________

Student ID: ___________________
Section: ____________

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 Resonance in Air Column
INTRODUCTION

A sine wave generator drives an open speaker to create a standing sound wave in a resonance
tube. The driving frequency and the length of the tube are varied to study their relationship to
wavelength and the speed of the sound wave. The concepts of nodes, anti-nodes, and harmonics
are investigated for both closed and open tubes.

SETUP

1. Turn on the Sine Wave Generator

and turn the amplitude knob all the
way down (counter-clockwise).

2. Connect the generator to the speaker

using two banana patch cords.
Polarity does not matter.

3. Place the Resonance Tube

horizontally, as shown, with the
speaker near the open end. Place the
speaker at a 45° angle to the end of
the tube, not pointed directly into it.

4. The inner (white) tube slides inside the blue tube to adjust the effective length of the
closed tube.

Part I: Closed Tube of Variable Length

OBJECTIVE:

Find the speed of sound by varying the closed tube lengths at resonant frequencies.

THEORY:

A resonating tube with one end open and the other end closed will always have a node at the
closed end and an anti-node at the open end. A node represents an area where the velocity of the
air is a minimum (zero), and an anti-node represents an area where the velocity of the air is a
maximum.

If the tube is resonating at a particular fixed frequency, the tube will resonate as shown below,
where the curved lines represent the velocity profile of the air in the tube.

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As the length of the active part of the tube is increased, the sound becomes loud at each
successive node and quiet at the antinodes. Note that the distance between the nodes is ½ λ.

For all types of waves, the frequency (f) and the wavelength (λ) are related to the speed (v) of the
wave as given by Equation 1.

v=λf (1)

Open Closed
End End

Open Closed
End End

Open Closed
End End

1
2 

PROCEDURE

1. Slide the two tubes together, so that the tube length is zero. Set the Sine Wave Generator
frequency for 300 Hz and the amplitude on a reasonable level.

2. Extend the white tube, increasing the tube length. The loudness of the sound will noticeably
increase as you approach resonance. Move the tube in and out to pinpoint the position that
gives the loudest tone. Record this position.

3. Continue to extend the white tube and find all the positions that cause a resonance. Each of
these positions represents a node in the standing wave pattern.

4. Calculate the distance between the nodes. Use this distance to calculate the wavelength of the
sound wave.

5. Use the frequency of the sine wave generator to calculate the speed of the wave. Call this v1.

6. Set the Sine Wave Generator frequency for 400 Hz and repeat the above procedure. This time
you will find three places for resonance and thus you can find two independent values for

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 half-wavelength. Take the average of these two values and then calculate another value for
the speed of the wave, call it v2.

7. How does the speed of the wave compare to the previous wave at 300 Hz? Are they about
the same?

8. Find the vavg from v1 and v2

9. The actual (rather another estimate of) speed of the wave is the speed of sound in air, which
is temperature dependent. This value (va) can be calculated using

T
a. va = v273K 273K

where v273K = 331 m/s and T is the temperature of the air in Kelvin. Measure the air
temperature and calculate the actual speed of sound.

10. Compare your measured values for the speed of sound (v in step 8) to this actual value va.
Calculate the percent error.

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Part II: Open Tube of Fixed Length

THEORY

A resonating tube with both ends open will always have an anti-node at both ends, and at
least one node in between. The number of nodes is related the wavelength and the harmonic.
The first harmonic (or fundamental) has one node, the second harmonic has two, etc., as
shown here. For a tube of fixed length, at higher harmonics, the frequency is higher and the
wavelength is shorter.

PROCEDURE

1. Slide the inner tube all the way out, and separate it from the outer tube. Use only the
outer blue tube with two open ends.
2. Set up the Sine Wave Generator and the speaker as before. Start with the frequency at 50
Hz and slowly increase it using the coarse (1.0) knob. Find the frequency of the
fundamental (to the nearest 1 Hz).
3. Calculate the wavelength using the frequency and the actual speed of sound you
calculated in Part I. How does this compare to the length of the tube?
4. Increase the frequency of the Sine Wave Generator and determine the frequency of the
second and third harmonic. How do these compare to the fundamental?

FURTHER INVESTIGATIONS (OPTIONAL)

1. Return the frequency to the fundamental for the open tube, and then replace the open tube
with the closed (white) tube. Is it still at resonance? Decrease the frequency until you find
the fundamental resonance of the closed tube. (It may be necessary to increase the
volume and/or calculate the theoretical fundamental to help pinpoint the actual value.)
Why is the fundamental frequency of the closed tube lower than it was for the open tube?

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QUESTIONS

Suppose that in this experiment the temperature of the room had been lower; what effect would
this have had on the distance between nodes for each reading? Explain.

CONCLUSION
Summarize the differences between an open and closed tube. Also discuss:
-How the velocity, wavelength, and frequency changed as the tube length was varied.
-How the velocity, wavelength, and frequency changed for the part of the experiment in which
the tube length was constant.

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