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School Name Date

Class (No.) Subject Mark

AL Practical Physics

B4 Observation of beats
Procedure A. Beats from two tuning forks produced and compare it with the sound obtained by a single tuning fork. The single tuning fork produced the sound continuously and gradually decayed. When two tuning forks with slightly different frequencies were knocked, the sound intensity produced was rise and fall regularly and also slowly died away. B. Beats from two signal generators waveform as f1. 3. Knock the tuning forks 1 and 2 at the same time and hear their sound. Describe the sound

7. Turn on the CRO and adjust the Y scale to displace the whole waveform. Sketch the

8. Switch off the signal generator 1. Switch on the signal generator 2 and set the frequency to 260 Hz with the same amplitude as step 6. Sketch the waveform displaced on the CRO as f2.

New Way Physics for Advanced Level

Manhattan Press 2005

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9. Switch on the signal generator 1 and set the frequency to 250 Hz again. Sketch the combined waveform from loudspeakers 1 and 2 as f.

10. Set the frequency to 270 Hz in the signal generator 2. Sketch the combined waveform as f .

Results and Discussion 1. Describe the intensity and amplitude of the combined sound (beat) in Parts A and B. The combined sound with slightly different frequencies emitted the rise and fall sound intensity, which is called the sound beat. The difference of these two frequencies is the beat frequency. If the difference of the frequencies is large, there will be two separate sound notes instead of sound beat, i.e. no sound beat can be produced. 2. Explain why beats are formed by two waves of different frequencies. When two waves having slightly different frequencies meet at some place, their phases relative to each other are changing with time, i.e. repeatedly in phase and in antiphase. As a result, the successive constructive and destructive interference of two sound waves produced the rise and fall sound intensity.

New Way Physics for Advanced Level

Manhattan Press 2005

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3.

From Part B, calculate the beat frequencies f and f . Compare f and f and deduce the relationship between the beat frequency and the variation of individual frequency. f = 260 Hz 250 Hz = 10 Hz f = 270 Hz 250 Hz = 20 Hz

4. State the sources of error and suggest improvements for this experiment. (a) The speakers are not placed in parallel. (b) The microphone is not placed in the middle between the speakers. It is suggested to align the equipments properly in place. 5. Give a conclusion to this experiment. The sound beat frequency is produced from two sound waves with slightly different frequencies.

New Way Physics for Advanced Level

Manhattan Press 2005