Academic Integrity: tutoring, explanations, and feedback — we don’t complete graded work or submit on a student’s behalf.

As shown in the figure, the height of an air column in a particular pipe is adju

ID: 1265274 • Letter: A

Question

As shown in the figure, the height of an air column in a particular pipe is adjusted by changing the water level in the pipe. In a traditional experiment, a tuning fork is placed over the pipe, and the height of the air column is adjusted, by moving a reservoir of water up and down, until the pipe makes a loud sound, which is when the pipe's fundamental frequency matches the frequency of the tuning fork. If the speed of sound is 340 m/s, and an air column of 26.0 cm produces the loudest sound, what is the frequency of the tuning fork?

As shown in the figure, the height of an air column in a particular pipe is adjusted by changing the water level in the pipe. In a traditional experiment, a tuning fork is placed over the pipe, and the height of the air column is adjusted, by moving a reservoir of water up and down, until the pipe makes a loud sound, which is when the pipe's fundamental frequency matches the frequency of the tuning fork. If the speed of sound is 340 m/s, and an air column of 26.0 cm produces the loudest sound, what is the frequency of the tuning fork?

Explanation / Answer

It is open at one end, so we have a node and an antinode, which makes a quarter of a wavelength. Thus,

wavelength = 26.0 * 4 cm = 1.04 m

Thus,

f = v / wavelength

where v is the speed of sound = 340 m/s. Thus,

f = 326.9 Hz   [ANSWER]