Labquest:  Sound Amplitude

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Please read all directions carefully

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Items needed for this lab

Labquest

Microphone

Bells and Mallet

Printer

Directions:  One person is in charge of reading these instructions out loud,
step-by-step, as you complete this experiment. 

 

 

Power up Labquest - press in upper left

·         Note the Collect button (2) - you will be using this in just a bit
 

·         If the display doesn't come on, connect the power adapter.

 

Connect the microphone to the labquest

·         use the inputs at the top of the lapquest

Using the green stylus that's attached to the back of the labquest, click the tab for GRAPHING

 

Now....

·         One person takes the mallet for the bells and gives the longest D bar on the bells a good and sturdy 'donk', trying to produce the loudest sound possible.

·         Another person quickly maneuvers the tip the microphone near the bar that was just 'donked'

·         At the same time one person presses the Collect button

·         A graph should show up.

 

To store this 'run' click the the File Cabinet Icon.  This will clear out the graph for a second run.

Now... do the same steps as in step #4 - BUT this time, the person pressing the Collect button waits for 3 seconds (to wait for a quieter sound)

 

 

Click on Run and choose All Runs

 

 

 

 

Using the stylus on the labquest screen, highlight (click-hold-and drag) a small portion of the graph

(see diagram to the right. Btw: you won't see a red outline, but it will appear to be 'shaded')

Go to the Graph menu and select Zoom in

 

 

With both graphs displayed, connect the provided USB cable (coming from the printer) and connect the labquest to the printer

 

Go to File / Print / Screen and then tap the Print button on the touch screen

 

 

 

Once the print comes out,

  1. put your names on it and
  2. the title SOUND - AMPLITUDE
  3. Next, label the run that was SOFT and label the run that was LOUD.
  4. In one or two sentences, describe the difference in the sound waves
  5. Turn the paper in to your teacher

 

To get setup for the next section, go to File / New and then click on Discard

 

 

 

 

This page last updated:  Wednesday October 07, 2009

Questions regarding this page?  Click here

Author:  Kurt Thonnings