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Home » Sound: Bottle Organ

Sound: Bottle Organ

By Janice VanCleave

Blowing across the open mouth of a bottle causes the air inside the bottle to vibrate. The vibrating air produces sound. The pitch of the sound is determined by how fast the air vibrates. As the air inside the bottle decreases it vibrates faster and produces a higher pitched sound. You could write the relationship between the volume of air and the pitch of the sound like this: > air volume < pitch . This would be read as: An increase in the volume of air causes a decrease (lowering) in the pitch of the sound produced.

Discover For Yourself

Use the same kind of bottles, such as empty glass soda bottles. Fill the bottles with different amounts of water. Blow across the mouth of each bottle and compare the pitch of the sounds produced. You may have to practice a little to produce a sound. I find that puckering my lips helps me to direct the air.

What’s Happening?

The bottle with the most water has the least amount of air, thus it will produce a sound with the highest pitch. The opposite is true for the bottle that is empty or has the least amount of water. This bottle has the most air, thus will produce a sound with the lowest pitch.

Extension:

Use a metal spoon to tap on the bottles. Does the sound of each bottle change? If so, describe the difference in the pitch. How does the sound produced when you strike the bottles to the pitch produced by blowing across the tops of the bottles. What causes any pitch change?

What’s Happening?

The difference in the pitch when the bottles are tapped with blowing across their tops is the result of the vibration of different materials. Blowing across the bottle tops causes only the air inside the bottles to vibrate; tapping the bottle results in the bottle and contents to vibrate.

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Filed Under: Physics, Sound Tagged With: pitch, SOUND

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Welcome to Janice’s Science Extravaganza!

The spoon hanging from the string vibrates when struck and these vibrations are transmitted through the string and the sound is amplified by the plastic cups. ABOUT ME: Hi, I am Janice VanCleave, author of 50 best-selling science experiment books for children ages 4 through high school. I taught science for 27 years. MORE.....

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