Brandon Cobos

Abstract:

Chladni plates were designed to visualize acoustics by placing a substance (usually fine-grained sand) on a vibrating plate; at certain frequencies, the substance on the plate travels from areas of high frequency to no frequency – the nodes – and creates a standing wave. Originally, this process was performed by drawing a violin bow across a thin, flexible material. This experiment adapted and modernized the original by replacing the violin bow with a piston and function generator, allowing the experimenter to select specific frequencies and amplitudes to test. The piston is powered by a function generator, and observations about the shapes of the standing waves are collected using various combinations of amplitudes and frequencies. Measurements are taken of the size of the standing waves and the distances between the various structures. The relationships between the sizes of the waves and the frequencies are presented and some basic relationships are inferred from the data.