Question bank: Waves: Vibration in Sound Tubes

You have been invited to design an adjustable sound tube for a concert hall. The orchestra wants the tube to be able to produce sound at two different fundamental frequencies: one for open tubes and another for closed tubes. To carry out this project, you should: a) Describe how vibration and the formation of standing waves work in open and closed sound tubes. b) Calculate the length of the tube needed to achieve a fundamental frequency of 440 Hz with a sound velocity of 340 m/s in the case of an open tube. c) Calculate the fundamental frequency of a closed tube of the same length as found in item b) and with the same sound velocity.

One of the most well-known uses of the open tube is in musical instruments, such as trumpets, trombones, tubas, and woodwinds. In general, these instruments have many different lengths of open tubes that are used to produce sounds of different frequencies. What are the main characteristics of the sounds produced by these instruments?

An open tube can be used to generate standing waves, but also to measure the speed of sound in certain scientific experiments. How is this done?

A sound tube is a musical instrument formed by a tube closed at one end, called the mouthpiece, and open at the other end. When air is blown through the mouthpiece, the vibrations of the tube walls produce a characteristic sound. Sound tubes can be classified according to the shape of their cross-section. Which of these options correctly represents one of these classifications?