String Telephones versus Sound tubes... STEM project.... Homemade Science with Bruce Yeany
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- Опубліковано 6 вер 2024
- In preparation for a summer science STEM project, I visited my old school district and had some middle school students build and test some materials used in making string telephones and whisper or sound tubes. The Investigation was to determine the factors that gave us the best results, including changes in container materials, size of the horn, diaphragm size and stiffness, type of string, tautness of string, etc. Students are asked to rate the devices in four categories, including volume, clarity, pitch, tone and then summarize their findings. Future investigations will center around trying to improve the efficiency of the string telephones for better sound transmission.
I apologize for the quality of sound in several of the clips as I was battling the noise from this summer cicada population. The devices actually sounded better than the recordings indicate as I had to use filters to try and reduce the reduce the unwanted noise levels.
It's a good thing the Cicadas didn't get in the tubes! That would have been loud!
It was crazy trying to record with them, I had to stretch this over a couple days, at times they were so loud you can't even have a conversion and other times nothing at all
It could've triggered an earthquake and split the town in half. 😂
I'm 62. I wish we had teachers like you when I was in school. Things may have turned out different. Love watching your videos.
same here I'm 29 now loved physics and chemistry now im just cleaning toilets and opening /closing gates worst mind numing job ever plus I'm paying way over the top to live with nothing to show for it i totally hear you brother
I wish I had you as my physics teacher back when I was in school! Those classes would have been the highlight of the day! 😁👍 It's rare to see a teacher being so passionate about his profession! Most of the teachers I had only wrote a couple of page numbers on the whiteboard for us to read and then he/she just sat silent for the rest of the time - or even left the room completely, only to return 1 minute before ending the lession by telling us to go home and do whatever was written on the whiteboard...😑
🙄 "Yeah sure, I'm so excited..."
I loved physics even as a kid. It has always been my absolute favourite subject! Yet I got an "F" due to lack of motivation and unclear instructions from the teacher...🤦🏻♂️ I'm so disappointed because I really WANTED to learn!
Sorry to hear that, I can relate to your experience, my school years were about the same, I vowed that I wouldn't fall into the same path. I made up a simple quote that was my philosophy of education, probably said it a thousand times. Science needs to be experienced.
Mr Bruce thanks for showing so much passion towards your kids and the basics that you teach. Old school way of teaching. This is how you teach children of today about common sense. Please keep up with the awesome videos. The world needs people like you.
02:52 - Instant Star Wars blaster noises but I think the original sounds were made from hitting a radio tower/antennae suspension/anchoring cables with a heavy spanner. Always a great sound!!
I think you're correct but yeah same type of sound
There is a microwave tower near my sister's house in the country. I stopped there one day and using a zoom recorder, laid it on one of the guy wires and tapped the cable lightly. I like the delayed effect because of the length the vibrations had to travel and return. : )
Yeah… at 3:12, this student is not far off the reality, really… stretched metal cable, stretched metal spring…. Not so very different!
Plastic cups and thin metal cord would work really well.
Great video, as usual.
Thank You!
During my many random experiments as a kid, i found that metal salad bowls attached to thin metal wire worked the best for string telephone recievers.
Not sure how or where I found this channel but I’m loving it!
thanks, glad you got here
At a local science education center, they have what's basically a remote version of this. There are two enormous fiberglass dishes, one on each side of the building, and a person speaks into a ring positioned in front of it at just right spot. A person in front of the other dish can hear anything the other person says through that dish's ring, no matter how quietly they say it, while being completely inaudible to anyone in between. It's been one of the most popular exhibits for generations. I get the principles, but the actual names of those principles escape me at the moment. It's a great example of them, though.
Parabolic reflectors. This is kinda like whispering gallery effect and might be what they called it. At far enough distance the sound intensity approximates a plane wave and this gets focused down to the ring for listening. Neat stuff.
@@Slowly_Going_Mad Thank you.
Guess who it is!? It's YEANY-Y-Y-Y-Y-Y!!!!!
The issue with ghetto-phones, as we used to call them, was that for a strong transmission the line has to be under just enough tension to vibrate the string vs too much which instantly killed the signal. We used fishing line when I did this experiment all those years ago when I was a school and metal cans and fishing line gave the best results.
interesting that even with the metal cans we found some were better than others, some cans have ridge rings at the bottom making them less flexible giving poorer sound. We found that the Pringles cans had the best sound of any of the metal bottom containers that we tested.
@@YeanyScience - I remember using the larger cans with a volume of 2.5-3kg and they had a larger surface area for the 'skin'. We tried putting rivets into them, like a drum kit cymbal, to try get some sort of better noise but the jury was on whether our ideas made a difference.
@@YeanyScience Don't Pringles cans have aluminum bottoms?
@@jpopelishnope it's steel. Test with a magnet. But it's pretty thin for steel and kinda gives the impression of aluminum.
I would like to see a comparison between string phones, using cotton string and other filaments, including monofilament nylon and ultra high molecular weight polyethylene (Spectrum) fishing line, or even steel wire (piano wire). I suspect the tension on cotton string greatly alters the efficiency.
Or thin copper wire, we used that to great effect when we were kids
@@WynandSchoonbee when I was a kid, we used thin copper wires insulated in plastic, and attached to a special socket in the wall. 😜
Goodness gracious, that small metal one had nightmares coming out of it
Very fun project to do with the grandkids when they visit grandpa and grandma. Inexpensive entertainment and a bonus learning tool.
I was just thinking the same thing as I scrolled down the comments, shame mine went home yesterday 🙁
Good to see you going back into school, Bruce; and great video as always. Your speaker/vibration demo reminded me of another simple "intercom" project that uses no batteries, albeit it is electrical. You bust the speakers out of an old boom box. Then solder the 2 tabs on each speaker to long wires that connect to the tabs on another speaker. The amazing thing is that each speaker then also acts as a microphone--a "dynamic microphone" to be precise. The vibration of speaking into a "speaker" caused enough relative movement between the coil and the magnet to create electrical current; which travels over the wires and is then converted back into vibration/sound at the other end by the other speaker. Like the whisper tubes, you don't need tension or a straight line.
thanks, heard you and Erik got together this last spring, hope that we could do that sometime in the future. There's a couple other demonstrations that go along well with the one you described, I hope one of these days I get to show it to you.
That is such fun I love physics
Thanks. Great test. I was waiting 30 years for test like this :-D
So much energy .A very innovative teacher.
A good teacher engages the students in activity ... actions speak louder than words
I think my favorite similar-ish demonstration was at a science museum. It was two large (>6ft/2m) parabolic dishes about 30-50 feet across a room from each other. There was a platform and a marker for the focus of the dish. You could talk at a fairly quiet level and it would sound like the other person was basically right next to you, even though it was in a fairly loud room.
This guy is fun. Like a better natured Mr. Wizard
Mr. Yeany,
Great video. I imagine many students will always remember you as their favorite teacher.........However if that magnificent wagon with all the glorious wood paneling is yours. That alone should qualify you for legend status on campus.
It seems like for most of my life I've had station wagons. This one, a 1978 Pontiac Grand Safari wagon, I'm keeping more for the fun it rather than serious transportation. I've had it for about 12 years now and somehow has managed to sneak itself into some of my videos.
@@YeanyScience it's a handsome machine.
That old Station Wagon in the background takes me back to my childhood.
1978 Pontiac Grand Safari, somehow keeps sneaking into my videos
Same here. Seatbelts not required.
As a very practical research video this has helped a bunch to see what materials to use in the creation of our circus / dance performance. Thank!
Control of as many possible variables such as environment, string material, length, etc would be even better but thumbs up for Anchors Aweigh! Been a while since I heard that!
"I'd rather be out here talking on a phone than in class."
You and me both.
I loved learning and still do, but school quite thoroughly killed my early enthusiasm for school.
Would love to see the buckets with string redone adding lids with a hole for the mouth.
I started watching your videos after "Cody's Lab" gave you a shoutout. very cool vids and you are one of the few remaining teachers who really love teaching their students.
we've been trying several versions, I have a 2nd video planned on telephone improvements, and thanks to Cody for getting you here
Ahh the history guy my favorite history channel
Awesome video. These kids are very lucky to have you as their teacher!
I was the kid with the longer brown hair in the thumbnail, and I wish he was our science teacher, but he just came back to visit. I wished that he was the full time teacher
this is so inspirationnal for my sequence about the speed of signals
haha those were really an awsome way to test those effect on sound in different situations. bruce we in our school built our own way of this version but way different, we have to concave shapped metal sheet, with a low curvature, parabolic in curvature on two sides facing opposite to each other and at a high distance between them.
we then use to keep the sound source at the focci of the one parabolic shete or metal and the sound , just like light travels via waves and become parralel and converging and foccusing on the other focus of the parabolic sheet. we tried owr own version and it weirdly worked. it was nice actually.
you are too good to be a teacher, i wish i was there but iam lucky enough for these awsome videos.
sounds like you have a pretty good demonstration there, you should consider posting a video on it. I know I would love to see it. thanks you for the comments
@@YeanyScience yup! sure i will try sir . siam so glad you asked!
The Wagon Queen Family Truckster in the background makes me laugh.
Very nice Video😊 greetings from Germany
Your students are lucky to have you.
Instantly my favourite channel on UA-cam.
I was already subscribed, but can't remember when.
thank you
Why couldn't I have a since teach like you! Your kids seem like they have so much fun!
Great video.
I was looking exactly for this but I didn't expect so much tries and variations of the phone. I LOVED it!
I'm a UA-cam addict since UA-cam was created and I can definitely say that this is my favorite video on it!
Question: wouldn't the sound travel better with a nylon thread? I know the video is 2yo but I hope you can answer, I really would love to make the best version possible for my nephews.
Glad you like it!
Excellent!
This is awesome. Great video, Bruce
This science teacher didn't retire, merely retreated!
Now i know how to listen to my Neighbours arguing , just by sliding a garden hose under the door ! 😂
*Their door
Science fun - and educational.
I love this, I have a question if you would so happen to put the String in a small tube of pvc same length between the cups would it help keep the sounds of nature and other sounds at bay for Clearer talking
Thanks great as usual... An Idea for next experiment / use long flexible tubes to measure the speed of sound...
5:52 look at that station wagon ! ROFL she's a keeper
You might experiment with parabolic dishes. A pair was/(are?) set up at the Seattle Center Science Pavilion many years ago. They were facing each other about a fifty feet apart if I recollect correctly. One person could whisper in one and another person could hear it in the other. The dishes were large, probably eight feet across. It was a long time ago and I was much younger. It was fun to use and always attracted attention.
I'd like to try that, another example, in Philadelphia's fairmont park there is a statue with a curved wall surrounding part of it, standing at opposite ends of the wall you can whisper and hear very clearly at either end.
Pretty cool.
Love from
Tamilnadu
If all teachers were like you, we would have curious people walking around wondering how to innovate instead of humans learning just in order to secure a salary...
The physicist John Tyndall and his book entitled Sound mentions this about sound traveling in a long pipe.
"The celebrated French philosopher, Biot, observed the transmission of sound through the empty water-pipes of Paris, and found that he could hold a conversation in a low voice through an iron tube 3,120 feet in length. The lowest possible whisper, indeed, could be heard at this distance, while the firing of a pistol into one end of the tube quenched a lighted candle at the other."
I wondered about the extinguishing of the candle, was it due to the sound wave or the pistol causing enough air movement to put it out.
Maybe a rubber diaphragm snapped at one end of your long pipe could reveal if a pulse would arrive at the other end enough so as to disturb a candle. In the Paris water pipe Biot struck the pipe with a hammer and the sound through the metal was estimated 10 to 11 times faster than the later arriving sound through the air in the pipe. This was also the case with a pistol and specially arranged bell. What was curious about the mention of voices were 1/2 second interval echoes returning to the sender, yet only a single sound at the far end was received. It was speculated to be caused by the lead collar joints in the 8 foot 3 inch lengths of pipe but I wonder. Sadly no diameter of the pipe was reported.
The information was mostly from the title "Experiments on the Propagation of Sound through solid Bodies, and through the Air contained in very long Pipes" by Mr. Biot, specifically the listing ("The" Quarterly Review volume 3), searching Google books/free public domain.
As many feet as a bullet would drop over 1000 yards and the collars in the pipe it seems a bullet might be stopped before reaching the end of Biot's water pipe. I wonder if a gunshot or strong pulse of air in a pipe could produce an air pulse sound ahead of a slower following pressure wave vaguely analogous to the pop sound a toy smoke ring shooter makes and the slower vortex ring that follows?
Rereading the article he refers to only possible accidental protrusions in the pipe so maybe the pipe was smooth and a bullet would travel the length. Your question about how the candle flame was put out made me curious. I can think of a bullet zinging by a flame maybe, a pistol firing a blank and causing a sudden sound wave roughly 3 seconds later, or perhaps a following or slower pressure pulse conveyed from the explosion? Alas ...
That's actually pretty interesting as the result for filter sound 1:25
2:50 oooh
Django approves of the pool hose..
Beat channel on UA-cam
awesome teacher
Nice work as usual. : = ))
1:25 Today in home-made science, we're opening up a portal to the afterlife
we used thin nylon fishing line
that actually works better than the string I used but I opted for string. I found working with fishing line telephones and so many students was problematic, harder to see and once the line got tangled it was impossible to untangle.
@@YeanyScience UHMWPE (ultra high molecular weight polyethylene) braided fishing line works better than nylon line and is easy to see. It's high modulus and low loss make it work better than ant other string or line or wire I tested. Kevlar may work as well. The only Kevlar line I have is too thin.
Also, try different cups at the two ends. That way resonances of the two cups are different, averaging to a flatter frequency response.
2:56 It's like star wars up here
Technically speaking I'm guessing thatit should work best using a sealed spiral that gradually reduces size in the tube
Good thing I wasn't in your class, I probably would have tried to fart down the tube.
My Grandad used to have a hearing aid tube like a horn similar to a gramophone am i right thinking this is similar or the same ? I'm here in England Wish i was in the good old USA looks nice and warm thier :D mind you been sunny today we do get nice days now and again but i love the US I have always wanted to live their
According to this 1852 Scientific American article, Biot probably used a water pipe bore of 12 inches or more for his ~3000 meter test with voice, pistol, and flute. It's interesting to think what diameter would least attenuate sounds over long distances. He recorded the time taken in asking a question and receiving an answer. I wonder if there's any contemporary information or experiments to ascertain for certain just what distance is possible with a long pipe? There are UA-cam videos of a fellow who plays his saxophone into a pipe and it would be curious to try that sort of pipeline out.
www.scientificamerican.com/article/speaking-through-tubes/
Currently trying 6 inch tubes up to about 300 feet, quite a bit shorter an Biot's test. Good question about the optimal diameter , I wondered that myself
Wow
Hope the music was paid for or UA-cam may hit you with a copyright strike. Why were some of the students leaving the string totally limp and expecting any sound? Learning experience? I discovered that sound the slinky made back in 1976. I think it sounded more like War of the worlds when shooting from their sides or Star Trek when shooting photon torpedos. There are some relationships with Star Wars I guess but to me, it sounds more like the others I mentioned. I used to hang a slinky from a microphone and rest a few inches of remanding slinky on the ground then lightly strike with a pencil. After recording it I slowed it down a little. Cool sounds to make. : )
I've learned about using copyrighted music the hard way so I used music that youtube makes available for use in videos. The clip where the string is on the ground was at my request, otherwise we reviewed that the strings need to be taunt, hands off of the diaphragm, hold the container straight towards the opposite side, we were short on time but all in all the kids did a nice job with the investigation
you can crossover this topic with history lesson, long before modern communication device, about the time of steam engine first use in ship/warship, which one do they use to communicate the bridge and the engine room? string or tube? or something else, such as runner? sailors are practical person, they won't adapt something that don't work on their ship.
now we know how star wars was made
Bruce, Steve Mould and Electroboom are having trouble identifying what makes a chain fountain rise. I think you and your string shooters could help
The last video they posted a few days ago stated what causes it.
It's a great demonstration but I've never tried it, I hope to one of these days
Yup that sounds like hold music.
Nice! I wonder how was the result of the last one that you improved the bottom with flexible piece?
Hey Mr.Bruce...I liked that slinky sci fi sound!..Anyway, there is a great audio tool for noise filtering called Izotope RX, it could easily remove the cricket's sound. Please let me know if u want any clarification.
I should look into it, I'd be interested in any information, personal experiences you can give me, either here or my email is bgoknee@comcast.net. thank you
@@YeanyScience Sure! I emailed you the full details.
Очень круто!
what is the music at 6:10 i hear it often in videos and idk where
1:45 was that Anchors Aweigh?
So why are the steel whisper tubes at playgrounds so awful?
What is the maximum distance a sound tube or cup and string is effective?
I'm working on that very question, will post the results when I can get some student helpers
How about using fishing line instead of the string you used? It seems to me that the fishing string would handle the vibrations better.
Thanks David, we will be using that in a future video.
Chet Atkins in the tube?
I use fishing line in my classroom? I wonder if I should switch to what you are using...🤔
Hi Tim, I've tried string, wire, nylon rope and fishing line previously. We found the string the easiest to work with and kept them all the same (except for the big buckets). Changing the string type introduced too many variables for the short amount of time we had. I would say stick with the fishing line
6:13 wait, that car... and the little girl earlier talking about Star Wars, how OLD is this video??? Are you a time traveler?
What string do you use
Anyone know the song at 5:52?
I’m gonna build a house with sound tubes connected to each room
what is the song at @8:00?
1:50 Whats the Name of this Song? I know it but cant remember the Name
Anchors Away!
@@Bendigo1 thx 😌
This video felt so much longer than it actually was
What's that down to tune my guy?
WHATS THAT DJANGO TUNE MY GUY**
which one?
I wonder if this would qualify as a water string telephone? But how far could a flowing stream of water be kept coherent? Maybe of interest.
Hydraulic microphone
ua-cam.com/video/gXAg1SHdPxE/v-deo.html
Whisper tubes are cheating, the sound starts out in air, and nothing changes.
Please try different media for the strings too, like different types of wire, weed trimmer line, and rubber strings.
I had thought of keeping the two methods separate, I plan on at least two more videos which will look at each method singly.
FNAF at 9:12
1:25 Today in home-made science, we're opening up a portal to the afterlife
Wow