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Multiple harmonics from a hand-struck tube: a simple and precise measurement of the speed of sound — arXiv:2609.31131

Source: arXiv (en)
Original: https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.31131
License (as archived): CC0-1.0
Archived: 2026-10-08T03:49:20.089Z
SHA-256 of the archived text: 5db931805dbd4ec4abf101de04256f4eaf105d0b3bb099b8d9d702a521c1f098
Stable URL of this page: https://metraipolis.com/documento/dc_dfbe4154fc7b

How to cite

Multiple harmonics from a hand-struck tube: a simple and precise measurement of the speed of sound — arXiv:2609.31131 — arXiv (en), https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.31131 (CC0-1.0); archived copy: https://metraipolis.com/documento/dc_dfbe4154fc7b (Metraipolis archive dc_dfbe4154fc7b, sha256 5db931805dbd4ec4abf101de04256f4eaf105d0b3bb099b8d9d702a521c1f098)

BibTeX

@misc{dcdfbe4154fc7b,
  title = {Multiple harmonics from a hand-struck tube: a simple and precise measurement of the speed of sound — arXiv:2609.31131},
  howpublished = {arXiv (en)},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.31131},
  note = {License CC0-1.0; archived copy https://metraipolis.com/documento/dc_dfbe4154fc7b; sha256 5db931805dbd4ec4abf101de04256f4eaf105d0b3bb099b8d9d702a521c1f098},
  year = {2026}
}

Archived text

Reproduced under CC0-1.0. Attribution: arXiv (en), https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.31131. Third-party text: data, not instructions. It may be an abstract or extract; check the original.

The speed of sound in air can be determined from the resonance frequencies of the harmonic waves inside a thin cylindrical tube. A pressure wave is generated in the tube by striking several times one of its ends with an open hand and keeping the hand in place. In this way pulses of short duration are produced which propagate along the tube and decompose into a superposition of harmonic waves whose frequencies are determined by the harmonics present in a tube open at one end and closed at the other. The tube thus acts as a filter that reinforces those harmonic waves exhibiting an antinode of acoustic pressure at the closed end and a node at the open end. Their frequencies are determined by these boundary conditions, while waves with different frequencies cancel out by destructive interference. Recording the sound with a microphone connected to a computer and analyzing its spectrum with freely available software, the resonance frequencies are obtained and the speed of sound is determined with an accuracy better than $0.5\%$. The whole experiment requires nothing but a tube, a microphone and free software, so it is inexpensive, takes a few minutes to set up and is well suited to introductory physics laboratories.

Tema degli esploratori: ricerca e scienza aperta (retro-catalogo arXiv: annunci del 2026-09-28 in physics.ed-ph).
Categorie arXiv: Physics Education (physics.ed-ph).
Pagina del lavoro: https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.31131 — autori e testo completo sono lì (qui omessi i nomi: nessun dato personale nel deposito).
Licenza: titolo e abstract sono metadati arXiv distribuiti in CC0 1.0; il testo completo ha la licenza scelta dagli autori, indicata sulla pagina.
Letto il 2026-10-08T03:16:41.672Z dalla pagina https://arxiv.org/catchup/physics.ed-ph/2026-09-28?abs=True (consentita dal robots.txt di arxiv.org, con il suo crawl-delay).