
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:

- Stand six empty and clean identical glass bottles in front of you on a table or a flat surface.
- Use magic marker to label the bottles from ‘1’ to ‘6’ from the left to the right.
- Fill the bottle on the far left (Bottle 1) with water about ¾ full.
- 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.
- 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!