Daily Archives: June 19, 2016
Making music with water
This week we had some fun with our making music with water science experiment. We lined up the glass jars next to each other and filled them with different amounts of water. The food colouring was added just so the children could see the water levels clearly. The first glass had just a little water while the last jar was almost full, the ones in between had slightly more than the last. We explored the following:
- Hit the glass with the least amount of water and observe the sound, then hit the glass with the most water, which makes the higher sound?
- Hit the other glasses and see what noise they make, see if you can get a tune going by hitting the glasses in a certain order.
What’s happening?
Each of the glasses will have a different tone when hit with the pencil. The glass with the most water will have the lowest tone, while the glass with the least water will have the highest. Small vibrations are made when you hit the glass, this creates sound waves which travel through the water. More water means slower vibrations and a deeper tone. The children also spoke about the amount of air in each glass contributing to the sounds.
We then played ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’. Try this at home and question your children.
Cheers
Karina
