Study Guides | 1. sound | Sound In Water

Study Guide: Sound In Water

  1. Sound travels at different speeds in different media.
  2. The more solid the medium, the faster the sound travels.
  3. Sound travels faster in water than in air.
  4. Sound has a higher amplitude (is louder) in water than in air.

Bathtub Experiment

Materials
  1. One bathtub with working hot and cold water faucets and a drain that can be closed.
  2. One live experimenter’s head fully equipped with working ears.
  3. One good human knuckly for lightly tapping the side of the bathtub.
  4. One (or more) dry towels.
  5. A variety of other tapping objects, such as pencils, erasers, spoons, piece of wood, piece of metal, etc.
Directions
  1. Lightly tap the side of your bathtub.
  2. Fill the bathtub with water. (Choose a comfortable temperature!)
  3. Take a good breath and dunk your head under water being sure that both ears are under the surface.
  4. Lightly tap the side of the bathtub in exactly the same way as you did before.
  5. Note the differences in volume, pitch, tone, etc.
Experiment…
  1. How does the effect change when only one ear is under water?
  2. How does tapping the tub with different kinds of objects change the nature of sound under water?
  3. How does it sound when you tap the side of the bathtub that is underwater (inside the tub).
  4. While your head is underwater, can you hear far away sounds, perhaps in other parts of the house through the water that you can’t hear in the air?
  5. While your head is underwater, can you hear sounds inside your body that you can not hear in the air, such as the beating of blood in your ears?
  6. Would the effect change if the temperature of the water was much hotter or colder?
  7. What other questions can you explore?
  1. You can use the Main Ideas above as a starting point for writing your own conclusions.
Source: https://class.ronliskey.com/study/physics-6/sound-in-water/