Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

My son is doing his 8th grade graduation project that is based on a great american invention. The invention he chose is the electric guitar, but the science fair project portion needs to be centered around the reason that the invention was necessary in the first place, so he can't do just some typical electric guitar experiment. He would like to conduct an experiment in which he measures the difference in sound amplification between an acoustic guitar and an electric guitar, in addition to measuring the difference in sound waves from each, thereby illustrating the difference in the two instruments and showing how the invention of the electric guitar was able to change not only the face of music, but of music history. Any suggestions or information on how we can capture these measurements for his project (due on May 7, 2011) would be greatly appreciated!

Hi,

Here is a link to free software that can be used for sound analysis:

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Here are some Science Buddies project ideas on guitars:

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... p011.shtml

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... p005.shtml

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... p006.shtml

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... p021.shtml

And here are a few sites on the impact elcectric guitars have had on music:

http://www.guitarplayerscenter.com/blog ... c-guitars/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_guitar

http://www.reasontorock.com/elements/electricity.html

http://www.123helpme.com/view.asp?id=20859

This sounds like a great project, I wish you the best of success!!

Best regards,

Barrett L Tomlinson