Abstract A concert piano. It's a beautiful instrument and a spectacular sight when it's all set up on stage. The first thing you may notice when you first look at a concert piano is the impressive-looking soundboard, that large board on the back of the piano that is tilted up at an angle. It is used for amplification. The sound board greatly increases the volume of sound coming from vibrations of the strings. The soundboard is positioned so that it gathers the sound vibrations coming from the strings and then retransmits them at an even greater volume when it begins to vibrate. Many instruments have soundboards, including pianos, guitars, violins, banjos, lutes, and harps. Soundboards can even be found in nature. Did you know that you can hear the chirps of little black crickets at night thanks to small soundboards built right into their bodies? Yes, to increase the volume of their chirps, the crickets lift their wings to a 45-degree angle, just like the soundboard on a concert piano!In this music science fair project, you will investigate how positioning affects the ability of a soundboard to transmit sound. In certain positions there is more damping of the soundboard, which results in a lower amplitude of sound. You will need a personal computer, either laptop or desktop, with a built-in microphone; or a tape recorder with a visual display of incoming signals. If you are using a personal computer, the Bibliography provides a link to free software that will allow you to look at and compare your sound recordings. You can choose any instrument with a soundboard to do your testing, but general instructions are given here for a classical guitar:
In which position do you have the least contact with the guitar's soundboard? Which position produced the greatest amplitude of sound? Bibliography This source describes how soundboards work:
This video link shows the folk and classical guitar positions:
This link provides free "open-source" software with the capability for looking at and editing sound signals:
Variations
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Physicist Physicists have a big goal in mind—to understand the nature of the entire universe and everything in it! To reach that goal, they observe and measure natural events seen on Earth and in the universe, and then develop theories, using mathematics, to explain why those phenomena occur. Physicists take on the challenge of explaining events that happen on the grandest scale imaginable to those that happen at the level of the smallest atomic particles. Their theories are then applied to human-scale projects to bring people new technologies, like computers, lasers, and fusion energy. |
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Sound Engineering Technician Any time you hear music at a concert, a live speech, the police sirens in a TV show, or the six o'clock news you're hearing the work of a sound engineering technician. Sound engineering technicians operate machines and equipment to record, synchronize, mix, or reproduce music, voices, or sound effects in recording studios, sporting arenas, theater productions, or movie and video productions. | |
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