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Make music with bottles filled with water

Physics Science Projects

Suitable For

Grade 5

Difficulty

2

Time Required

 <1 Hour

Supervision

Advised

What’s it about?

When you tap a glass bottle with a spoon, it makes a sound at a particular pitch. It is vibrating or ‘resonating’ at that pitch which has a particular frequency, for example 300 beats per second. You can make a glass bottle vibrate at various pitches to produce music, by filling the bottles with water to different levels, as you will see in the following science experiment:

Topics covered

Sound conductor, Resonance, Xylophone

What will I need?

  • 6x GLASS BOTTLES
  • TAP WATER
  • SPOON
  • MAGIC MARKER

Procedure (Method)

When you tap a glass bottle with a spoon, it makes a sound at a particular pitch. It is vibrating or ‘resonating’ at that pitch which has a particular frequency, for example 300 beats per second. You can make a glass bottle vibrate at various pitches to produce music, by filling the bottles with water to different levels, as you will see in the following science experiment:

Science project diagram
  1. Stand six empty and clean identical glass bottles in front of you on a table or a flat surface.
  2. Use magic marker to label the bottles from ‘1’ to ‘6’ from the left to the right.
  3. Fill the bottle on the far left (Bottle 1) with water about ¾ full.
  4. Now, add water to the following bottles so that the water level is a bit lower than the first bottle. Continue adding water to the bottles towards the right so that each one has a little bit less water in it than the bottle on its left, similar to the diagram above.
  5. Use a metal spoon to tap on ‘Bottle 1’ and then on ‘Bottle 6’ and you will hear that the bottles with more water produces a lower pitch, and the bottles with less water produces a higher pitch. By adjusting the amount of water in each bottle, you can produce a whole musical scale. Your ‘xylophone’ is now ready to use!

Note: In the ‘Learn more’ section of this experiment, you will find some music examples to learn and play!

How does it work?

In this science experiment, when a bottle is tapped with a metal spoon, it causes the air inside the bottle to vibrate, which produces a sound. The amount of water and thus also the amount of air inside the bottles, affects the sound it makes. More water and less air produce a lower pitch, and less water and more air produces a higher pitch.

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