Density sound Lab

Sophie Moynihan

7B

Science lab

Guiding question: How does the density of an object affect the properties of sound traveling from a tuning fork.

Hypothesis: I predict that the denser an object the louder the sound will be

Materials: Tuning fork (256 C)

Box

Desk

Wall

Locker

White board

Procedure: We are testing materials of different densities to see which will make the greatest or most intense sound

Box
Density= 0.65 g/cm3
Low and really buzzy. Not a very projectile sound, pretty quiet

Desk
Density= 0.65 g/cm3

Low, quiet sound. Not a lot of vibrations and not a very loud sound

Wall
Density= 1.1 g/cm3
Vibrations but no sound (to dense??) pretty much stopped the tuning fork from vibrating

Locker
Density= 7.859 g/cm3
High twang sound, one long continuous sound. Super loud, can be heard from several lockers down

White board
Density= 2.7 g/cm3
Higher then wood box, buzzy. Super projectile and can be heard even if you aren’t pressing your head to the whiteboard.

Record and analyze: After testing all of our objects, these were the results we got a variety of results. Most of them really contradicted our hypothesis, but we got some really valid data and also learned some things about how the materials effect how the sound will travel and bounce because of what they are made of.

Conclusion: Does the density of an object effect the waves traveling through it? We hypothesized that a denser object would make a louder and sharper sound. After many long tests, we can conclude that the denser an object, the lower and more faint and deep the sound it makes will be, and the less dense an object, it will make a higher and more shrill sound. My hypothesis was completely off, and in a way the results we got make much more sense. If an object is less dense, it will be easier for the sound to travel as appose to if it is denser. You can think of it as if you were trying to hear someone from the other side of a wall. It is easier to hear someone if the wall is made of some kind of flimsy wood and foundations as oppose to if it were concrete.

Further Inquiry: There are a lot of components that probably would have messed up some of our research if it were a touchier experiment. For one, we hit the tuning fork with a different aggression every time, which gave us a variety of different sounds. Also, about half way through the experiment, we realized that temperature was a huge component in the way sound travels. We had been testing the railing outside, which was at least 20 degrees colder, so we decided to measure sound in the lockers instead. A last thing that probably changed the result of our tests is that we were putting our heads at different positions every time, therefore making the sound travel a different distance every time. Other than that and a few other slip ups, the experiment went smoothly and I feel like it was one of the most productive experiments we have ever done.
Sites used
http://www.wolframalpha.com/

Tsunami in Japan

Sophie Moynihan
7B
Current events
http://articles.cnn.com/2011-03-11/world/japan.quake_1_hokkaido-tsunami-east-japan-railway?_s=PM:WORLD
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/03/11/japan.quake/index.html?iref=obnetwork
http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/03/14/japans-earthquake-and-tsunami-by-the-numbers/

On Friday, March 11, an 8.9 earthquake struck just off the coast of Japan. This caused a powerful Tsunami that completely wiped out the shores and towns around the coast of Japan. The quake was felt as far as Seattle, L.A., and other cities on the west coast of the United States. The epicenter was near Miyagi Prefecture, and the quake caused the island of Japan to move about 8 feet (2km) and moved the earth so violently that it tilted the planet off its axis and caused our days to be about a milli- second shorter. The quake made home collapse and has left many homeless, and many more dead or severely injured. "It shook things so violently I thought things were coming to an end ... it was simply terrifying." Said a man named Andy Clark, who has been living in Japan for about 20 and got use to the little reoccurring quakes that happen there daily. 30 foot waves came up onto the shore and hit about 60% of the country. Around 10% are still without power,food, or drinking water. There are 2,475 people that have been reported dead and about 3,118 people have been reported missing as of Tuesday morning. There are many countries that are already pitching in and thousands of dollars are being donated everyday in order to help pay off the millions of dollars of damage that has been caused by the quake.

What happened in Japan was really scary and awful. I have been tuning in every day this weekend on CNN. It was really crazy to see the wall of water spill over the shore and onto land and cause to much destruction in such a little time. I always imagined a tsunami as a big wave that stopped at the shore line but after seeing how the wave came and wreaked total houses that were almost 10 miles off the shore really scared me. Now I'm worried about what coming to Seattle, although I'm pretty sure the worst of it is over. I look forward to contributing to helping people re-build all the housed and plains that were destroyed and have some ideas of how we can raise awareness in our school and give back to the people in need.

Propertys of sound lab

Distance away from middle	Description of sound
1Cm	Deep (very quiet)
2cm	Deep but getting louder
3cm	Deepish and getting louder
4cm	Getting higher and louder
5cm	High and sharp

Thickness of rubber band	Description of sound
Thick	Dull and low
thin	Sharp and high

Tightness of rubber band	Description of sound
Tightest	Dull (doom)
tight	Middle (thwang)
loose	Sharp (muwah)

Length of rubber band	Description of sound
longest	Sharp (32)
long	Thwang (28)
shortest	Deep (23)

For this lab we tested the different components of sound given different situations. We test bands for thickness, length, tightness, and other components that may effect the sound. As maria and I worked, we found lots of different reasons that would effect the way things sound. During our tests, we found that the thicker a material, the more dull or low the sound would turn out. The thick and short strings we tested made sounds we could hardly hear. And on the other hand, the longer and thinner the rubber band, the sharper and higher the sound would be. When we tested the long, the thin, and the stretchy bands, they made much better and louder sounds. Also, tightness effected the sound. We found that the tighter a band, the sharper the sound and the looser the band, the duller and less prominent the sound. This tells me a lot about how sound travels and how the medium can effect it so much. This tells a lot about ow sound would travel through water, as oppose to wood or rock. Knowing this is going to help me make a lot more predictions in labs to come

How people produce sound

Guiding question: How do people produce sound?

Hypothesis: We learned that sound come from the part of the throat called the larynx. In the larynx are your vocal chords. Air from our lungs causes the chords to vibrate and make sounds. I think that sounds will very given the amount of air you have and the way you form mouth.

Materials:
Just the piece of paper we were given in class

Procedure: We have to read the words on the list we were given and determine weather we are stopping the breath when we say certain sounds or not. I will have a partner to determine weather or not we are cutting sounds off by observing the way my mouth moves.

Record:
B= stopped
F= open
K= stopped
P= stopped
S= open
D= stopped
V= open
G= stopped
Z= open
T= stopped

Conclusion: From this, we can conclude that the way you form your words will definitely effect the sound. We learned that the way you use your teeth, tong, and lips is going to change the sound you make. For example the letter S makes a sound when we use our teeth and lips. And the letter T makes a sound when we use our tongs.

Further Inquiry: I'm really looking forward to digging deeper into how we make sounds. I wonder what will happen when we try and talk with a limited amount of breath so that the vocal chords aren't getting as much air from the lungs. I also want to know how sound travels through the air and why it is easier for it to travel through solids. I look forward to investigating this unit.

What happens when we get laryngitis?
When your vocal chords get red and swollen, this is something called laryngitis. This illness can cause people to "loose their voice", or not be able to talk because their voice is so horse. In children, it is often brought on by too much shouting. Singers also are more prone to this because their vocal chords are used in many different ways.