EXPERIMENT No: 6

Determination of the frequency of a tuning fork by a sonometer.

Apparatus: The sonometer employed here consists of a hollow resounding wooden box W
on the upper surface of which a fine uniform steel wire SS is kept stretched.

[ Fig].
The wire passes over the two fixed bridges B1 and B3 at the two ends of the box. One
end of the wire is attached to a pin P while its other end passes over a pulley L and is
attached to a hanger H on which loads can be placed to stretch the wire. There are movable
bridges like B 2 below the wire by moving which the vibrating length of the wire can be
altered. There is a metre scale MM by the side of the wire by which its vibrating length can
be measured.

Theory: When a flexible stretched string of finite length  is plucked, transverse waves will
proceed along the string with a velocity 𝑣 = √(𝑇/𝑚) where T and m are the tension (in
dynes) and mass (in gms.) per unit length of the string respectively. These waves will be
reflected from the fixed ends of the string and will superpose on the direct waves forming
stationary waves, in which nodes and antinodes will be produced. It the string vibrates in its
fundamental or simplest form, then it will vibrate in one segment only [fig below] having
nodes at the two fixed ends and an antinode at the middle, so that  =  / 2, or  = 2 .
Thus, for fundamental vibration of string,

T 1 T 1 T
V = n = ; or n = =
m  m 2 m

If the mass of the hanger be mh gm and of load of the hanger be W kilogram, then the total
stretching load of the wire is, M = (1000W+mh) gms. Hence the tension of the string is, T=Mg
dynes.
 1 Mg g M
n = =  ... ... (1)
2 m 4m  2

If the given unknown fork is brought in unison with the length  of the string,
emitting its fundamental tone, then the frequency (n) of the fork will be equal to that of the
string and hence n can be calculated from the relation (1).
If the diameter of the material is ‘d’, then the density of the material of the wire is
given by
𝑔 𝑀
𝜌= × … … (2)
𝜋𝑛2 𝑑 2 𝑙2

Procedure :

(i) First , the mass per unit length (m) of the string is to be determined. For this purpose, a
sample wire is taken and its length (L) is measured accurately by a scale while its mass (w) is
determined by a balance. Hence mass per unit length m (=w/L gms. per cm.) is determined.
Weighing should be made either by observing equal displacements of the pointer on both
sides of the central line (in which a rider is to be employed) or better by oscillation method.

The unloaded hanger (H) is detached from the wire and its mass (m h gms.) is
determined by a balance (usually the value of mh is supplied). Then it is kept tied to the end
of the wire.
(ii) A suitable load, of W kg. (Say 2kg.) is placed on the hanger to give some tension
to the wire, so that the total stretching load of the wire is M = (1000 W+mh) gms. The two
movable bridges below the wire are then kept separated by a very small distance until the
sound emitted by the string is shriller (high pitch) than that of the fork.
(iii) The prong of the fork is struck by a hammer and its stem is held on the board
when a loud sound is heard due to the forced vibration on the board. The string is plucked
by hand when another sound will be heard. The position of one of the movable bridges
below the wire is then shifted slowly to increase the length of the wire between the two
bridges until these two sounds are unison. At this unison, (1) a small paper rider placed on
the wire be thrown down violently when the stem of the vibrating fork is held in contact
with the board and (2) beats between the sounds of the fork and the string will disappear,
As this unison occurs with the shortest length of wire, we conclude that this unison occurs
between the fork and fundamental tone of the string. [A preliminary adjustment may be
made to find the approximate position of unison of the string. For this purpose, the movable
bridges should be kept at a sufficient distance apart. The central region of one prong of the
vibrating fork is made to touch the wire very lightly near one bridge and it is slides on the
wire towards the second movable bridge until at a particular point of the wire, a sharp
cracking sound is heard. This point of the wire is the approximate position of unison. The
first movable bridge is then brought to this position of the string and the exact position of
unison is then determined by employing the methods described in (1).
 (iv)The length of the wire between the two movable bridges measured by a scale
and this observation of finding the minimum length of the wire which is in unison with the
fork is repeated thrice. The mean of these three observations gives the resonant length (l) of
the wire, from which M /  2 is found out.

(v) The operation (ii) to (iv) are repeated with two other loads (say 2.5 kg and 3 kg)
on the hanger and in each case the ratio of the total stretching load M in gms to the square
of the corresponding mean shortest length  in cm of the wire (i.e; M /  2 ) is found out.
The mean value M /  2 from these observations, when put in the eqn. (1) we get n, the
frequency of the unknown fork.

Experimental data :

(A) Mass per unit length (m) of the string:

TABLE I

Length of the sample string Mass of the sample string in Mass per unit length of the
L in cm gms (W) sample m =W/L (gm/cm)

(B) Load- resonant-length records:

TABLE II

Mass of the hanger = mh = ….… gms.

No. of Load in the Stretching load of Resonant Mean Ɩ Value Frequency

Obs. hanger in the wire in gms Length in in cm of M/Ɩ2 (n)
kilos (W) (M) = 1000W+mh cm (Ɩ)

1. …

2. …

3. …

…
N.B [The magnitude of the maximum load applied, will depend on the diameter of the wire,
and it should be below half of the breaking load of the wire. For the same string, M /  2
should be nearly constant.]

g M
Calculation: n =  = ... = ...vibrations/ sec .
4m  2

𝑔 𝑀
𝜌= × = …gm/cm3.
𝜋𝑛2 𝑑 2 𝑙2

[By using the values of m from Table I and mean M /  2 from Table II]

Precautions:
(i) To avoid resonance between the fork and the higher tones of the string the shortest
length of the string should always be brought in resonance with the fork. In that case
resonance will occur between the fork and the fundamental tone of the string and the
formula employed would be correct.
(ii) The string should be plucked in such a way that the intensity of the sound emitted by the
fork and the string should be of the same order; otherwise beats cannot be heard clearly.