Help for 7th Grade Science Fair Project - How to Generate Sound Waves

How to make that sound...
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Michael L wrote: Wed Nov 20, 2019 5:27 am If this is your son's project, he should be posting.
Just sayin'...
Hi, I see your point. 1) He's not 13 2) I don't want him talking to strangers 3) He is completely driving this project - it's his idea, his plan, etc. but unfortunately he can't buy the equipment since he doesn't have any money so I need to be involved in funding and supporting his project. 4) his teacher has provided us with the guidelines for what parents should and should not do for support and I'm following them carefully. Thanks for your concern though! I'm all about empowering and encouraging kids to be curious and making learning fun.

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Good
Thanks for your reply.
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duplicate

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Be sure to teach him how to spell mum properly though. Along with aluminium ;)

Oh and the 1st floor isn’t the ground floor.
"I was wondering if you'd like to try Magic Mushrooms"
"Oooh I dont know. Sounds a bit scary"
"It's not scary. You just lose a sense of who you are and all that sh!t"

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ScienceFairMom wrote: Wed Nov 20, 2019 7:45 pm
Michael L wrote: Wed Nov 20, 2019 5:27 am If this is your son's project, he should be posting.
Just sayin'...
Hi, I see your point. 1) He's not 13 2) I don't want him talking to strangers 3) He is completely driving this project - it's his idea, his plan, etc. but unfortunately he can't buy the equipment since he doesn't have any money so I need to be involved in funding and supporting his project. 4) his teacher has provided us with the guidelines for what parents should and should not do for support and I'm following them carefully. Thanks for your concern though! I'm all about empowering and encouraging kids to be curious and making learning fun.
:D
good luck to him!
it's a pretty cool project to inspire learning, hopefully will create a desire to learn more.
the science of sound can be very interesting, from using soundwaves to douse a fire right through to the same waves creating geometric patterns in "cymatics" :)

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vurt wrote: Wed Nov 20, 2019 8:14 pm the science of sound can be very interesting, from using soundwaves to douse a fire right through to the same waves creating geometric patterns in "cymatics" :)
Excellent point. Sound also creates cymatic patterns in fire:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2awbKQ2DLRE
ScienceFairMom wrote: Wed Nov 20, 2019 7:45 pm2) I don't want him talking to strangers
We are certainly "strange" strangers! :party:
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Michael L wrote: Wed Nov 20, 2019 10:22 pm
vurt wrote: Wed Nov 20, 2019 8:14 pm the science of sound can be very interesting, from using soundwaves to douse a fire right through to the same waves creating geometric patterns in "cymatics" :)
Excellent point. Sound also creates cymatic patterns in fire:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2awbKQ2DLRE
ScienceFairMom wrote: Wed Nov 20, 2019 7:45 pm2) I don't want him talking to strangers
We are certainly "strange" strangers! :party:
now that is cool!
id not seen it done with fire before, but as the guy says, more fire is always better :D

re strangers/strangeness...
i certainly wouldn't have wanted my son talking to people like me online at 12 :o
ok, he met a fee members when they stayed at my house. but he lived :)

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vurt wrote: Wed Nov 20, 2019 11:35 pmi certainly wouldn't have wanted my son talking to people like me
It's too late to fix that now (20/20 hindsight), but alert your son that genetic traits often skip a generation.... :P


Looking at the fire extinguisher photos, it looks like those guys used a high-excursion speaker with a powerful magnet to control the cone movement so the output remains linear (no distortion), and a cone (aluminium or kevlar) durable enough to withstand the movement. Because its battery-powered, it's probably a car audio subwoofer, and they had to work hard to keep the total cost down to $600! I see the sound source is an iPhone app like this:
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/audio-fun ... d768229610
Be careful about exposure to loud, low-frequency sound:
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/ ... sos.140166
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Michael L wrote: Wed Nov 20, 2019 10:22 pm
vurt wrote: Wed Nov 20, 2019 8:14 pm the science of sound can be very interesting, from using soundwaves to douse a fire right through to the same waves creating geometric patterns in "cymatics" :)
Excellent point. Sound also creates cymatic patterns in fire:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2awbKQ2DLRE
ScienceFairMom wrote: Wed Nov 20, 2019 7:45 pm2) I don't want him talking to strangers
We are certainly "strange" strangers! :party:
He'll like seeing this. Thanks!!!

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Michael L wrote: Thu Nov 21, 2019 1:01 am
vurt wrote: Wed Nov 20, 2019 11:35 pmi certainly wouldn't have wanted my son talking to people like me
It's too late to fix that now (20/20 hindsight), but alert your son that genetic traits often skip a generation.... :P


Looking at the fire extinguisher photos, it looks like those guys used a high-excursion speaker with a powerful magnet to control the cone movement so the output remains linear (no distortion), and a cone (aluminium or kevlar) durable enough to withstand the movement. Because its battery-powered, it's probably a car audio subwoofer, and they had to work hard to keep the total cost down to $600! I see the sound source is an iPhone app like this:
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/audio-fun ... d768229610
Be careful about exposure to loud, low-frequency sound:
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/ ... sos.140166
Thanks so much - the iPhone app is a great idea and can't believe we didn't think of that for him! Very helpful observations! I passed them on and he downloaded the Function Generator App. We have a car subwoofer and a different Amp on order. Definitely needs to design a cone. The roller was a temporary proof of concept fill-in.

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The “cone” is the subwoofer speaker cone.

What scientific field is your son learning about through this project?
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Michael L wrote: Thu Nov 21, 2019 1:01 am
vurt wrote: Wed Nov 20, 2019 11:35 pmi certainly wouldn't have wanted my son talking to people like me
It's too late to fix that now (20/20 hindsight), but alert your son that genetic traits often skip a generation.... :P


my granddaughter said...
IMG-20191115-WA0000.jpg
:love:
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Michael L wrote: Thu Nov 21, 2019 8:20 am The “cone” is the subwoofer speaker cone.

What scientific field is your son learning about through this project?
He is learning the SCIENTIFIC METHOD of starting with a HYPOTHESIS ("The frequency and amplitude of sound waves affect the sound waves' ability to extinguish fire") and then learning to create an EXPERIMENT in which he can test his theory by measuring the effects on the DEPENDENT VARIABLE (fire going out) by changing the INDEPENDENT VARIABLE (sound frequency and volume/wave amplitude) and keeping other CONTROL VARIABLES constant and by testing if the fire goes out with no sound. That's the pure goal of a 7th grade science fair. They are supposed to pick a topic of interest or relevance (his interest is music, California fires are on everyone's minds so fire is a relevant issue right now). For his topic related to fire a parent is required by the school to assist him with the experiment.

They then learn to summarize their data and project on a display board and answer questions about it at the Science Fair. My hope as a parent is that he also comes away learning and being taught a lot of about waves and terminology and science around waves so when he learns about them in 9th grade physics it'll be grounded in life experience for him and not as conceptual. His older siblings haven't gone too wrong by me encouraging kids to love learning and do cool stuff ... his sister is a national merit scholar and will be majoring in biophysics in college next year. Hope this quells your concerns about my involvement!

He'll do another prototype and experiment for real over next few weeks. Wish him luck and I can report back results. Thanks to all who helped!

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if hes interested in music, the physics of sound is a great area of science for him 8)
its great to have a parent as willing as you too, i imagine some wouldn't be as happy about "playing with fire".

good luck to both of you 8)

but seriously! protect those ears!
treat the sound as if it's as dangerous as the fire, and be careful with both :tu:

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ScienceFairMom wrote: Thu Nov 21, 2019 6:49 pmHe'll do another prototype and experiment for real over next few weeks. Wish him luck and I can report back results.
Good luck, ScienceFairSon! Please write a brief report for Mom to post :tu:
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