Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

I have a question about the project "Less Cowbell! The Unconstrained Truth About Constrained-Layer Damping".
I have set up the project structurally. I only have the problem with using Audacity. I understand how to record, but I'm a little fuzzy on what I'm supposed to be recording.
The instructions say to measure how long the pan rings when I strike it, and then stop the recording. But it's difficult on the scale by seconds, and none of the pans ring past one second. Is there any way to explain to me what exactly I am to measure and how, or if there is another scale?
I figured the easiest way to measure how each constraining layer affected the sound was to measure decibels, but I find multiple decibel levels and don't know what to do.

Thanks!

Hello Ying123,

I was one of the originators of this experiment, so I'll see if I can help.

One of our other team members was the contributor for the part about measuring using the Audacity program. I'm not familiar enough with that application to be able to answer your question, but I have forwarded your inquiry on to the team member who did the testing of Audacity for this experiment. I should hear back from him in a day or so, and will forward his input along to you.

So keep your eyes open for some news in a day or so.

Here is that help I promised. I think these instruction apply to the new Windows7 version of Audacity. If you have the older version, as I do, you'll have to use the magnifying glass tool to expand the short noise burst so you can see the detail.

Enjoy!

Once the pan ring is recorded in Audacity, you can go back and measure how long it rings using the cursor and the Audacity Selection Toolbar. You may need to first turn the Selection Toolbar on by going to View > Toolbars > and select Selection Toolbar. It will appear at the bottom of the Audacity screen. Select the Length button on this toolbar and then left-click and drag your cursor along the recorded audio of the pan ring. You may have to zoom in on the recording to get an accurate measurement of time, which may be less than a second. Use the pulldown on the Selection Toolbar for "hh:mm:ss + miliseconds" for accurate measurements of less than a second. You can use a specific decibel value to determine the time cutoff when measuring the duration of the pan rings (the "how long" part...). Good luck!

Thank you so much!