Physics of Open-End Air Columns

The Resonance in Open End Air Columns Video Tutorial explains what an open-end air column is and how it resonates to form a standing wave pattern. The mathematical relationships between column length and wavelength and between wavelengths and frequencies of the various harmonics are discussed. Numerous examples, illustrations, and animations assist in the explanations.

The video lesson answers the following questions:

1. How do you draw the standing wave patterns for the various harmonics of an open-end air column?
2. How are the frequencies and wavelengths for the various harmonics related?

Video

You can watch the video below, or click here to watch on YouTube (opens in a new tab).

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Teacher Resources

Curriculum Corner, Sound: Resonance and Open-End Air Columns
Try our Curriculum Corner for a Think Sheet or a whole unit of Think Sheets and get your students thinking about resonance and air columns. You will find the video is closely correlated to the Think Sheet. This is free curriculum for the taking. And for a few extra bucks, you can obtain the source documents and purchase a license to place them and any deriviative from them on your password-protected course management pages; see the Solutions Guide.

Minds on Physics, Sound Waves and Music Module: Mission SM8 - Harmonics for Open-End Air Columns
There's nothing like a Minds On Physics mission for insuring understanding. This one pertains to resonance in open-end air columns ... and brings great closure to the topic. Advise students to use the Help button when they get stuck.

Minds on Physics, Sound Waves and Music Module: Mission SM9 - Mathematics for Open-End Air Columns
Do your students need practice with the mathematics of open-end air columns? You won't find better practice than this mission from Minds On Physics. If you have a Task Tracker subscription for MOPs, you can customize it to your liking, set up scoring rules, and retrieve student scores.

Concept Builders, Waves and Sound: Name That Harmonic (Open-End Air Columns)
This Concept Builder will sharpen student's skill at recognizing relationships between the standing wave patterns for open-end air columns and the frequencies and wavelengths of the various harmonics. And it works well with Task Tracker.

Science Reasoning Center, Sound Waves: The Sound of Music
Looking for something different? This activity uses two tables to compare and contrast the frequency, wavelength and speeds of the various harmonics produced by open- and closed-end resonance columns. The frequency composition of a clarinet and a flute are compared to one another. Questions target a student's ability to select information from a complex data table or a graph, to identify the relationship among the variables wavelength, frequency, speed and harmonic number, to use such relationships to make comparisons of the sounds produced by two different air columns, and to combine information in a table with information in a graph in order to identify appropriate conclusions.

Physics Tutorial, Sound Waves and Music Chapter: Open-End Air Columns
Our video tutorials are motivated by the existing written tutorials on our website. This specific page provides a great review of the video. Consider providing a link to this Tutorial page from your Course Management System.

Lesson Notes

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Slides

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