Bottle music is a science project for kids on producing sound that explores how volume and liquid affect sound waves. After experimenting with different types of bottles and levels of water, show your friends how this project works and start a bottle music band!
What You'll Need:
Eight empty bottles
Water
Step 1: Stand eight empty bottles side by side on a table in front of you. Fill the bottle on the left about 1/4 of the way full with water.
Step 2: Add water to the next bottle so that the water level is a bit higher than in the first bottle. Continue adding water to the bottles so that each one has a little bit more water in it than the bottle to its left.
Step 3: Blow across the bottle on the left, and you'll hear a low note. Blow across the bottle on the right, and you'll hear a high note. By adjusting the amount of water in each bottle, you can produce a whole musical scale.
When you blow across the bottle, you cause the air inside to vibrate, which produces a sound. The amount of air in the bottle affects the sound it makes. The bottles with more air produce low sounds, and the bottles with less air produce high sounds.
Sound Barriers
You don't need to be a super hero to stop sound. This sound barriers science project for kids shows how easy it is to halt sound waves in their tracks.
What You'll Need:
A friend
Step 1: Go into your backyard and stand about as far from your partner as your house is wide. (That should be about 30 feet or so.) Try to talk to one another.
As long as there is nothing between you and your partner, you should be able to hear one another fairly well, though you may have to raise your voice a little.
Step 2: Now stand on one side of a house while your partner stands on the other side. Try to shout something to your partner and see if you can be heard clearly. Have your partner shout something at you.
You may have heard something, but perhaps you could not make out what your partner was saying. Was the sound weak and distorted?
Try the same experiment with a wall between you and your partner. Try it with a fence, a window, a blanket, and other types of barriers. Does the thickness of the barrier matter?
