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Speed of Sound (9-12)

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Noise: Speed of Sound (9-12) cover showing a silhouette of an aircraft in flight in a duotone color.

Audience

Educators

Grade Levels

Grades 9-12

Subject

Mathematics, Physical Science, Problem Solving, Waves, Flight and Aeronautics, Sound

Type

Educator Guides, Lesson Plans / Activities

NOISE

Speed of Sound (9-12)

Noise: Speed of Sound participants will learn about motions and forces and the interactions of energy and matter as they use the principle of resonance to set up an experiment in the classroom to measure the speed of sound in air. The speed of sound will be calculated using the standard relationship between velocity, frequency and wavelength.

A second activity challenges students to produce longitudinal and transverse waves in a spring. They will measure wavelength, amplitude and the period of a transverse wave.

Noise: Speed of Sound (9-12)

Grade Level: 9-12

Time Required: 105 minutes

National Science Standards Addressed:

Science:

  • Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry
  • Understanding about scientific inquiry
  • Science and technology in local, national, and global challenges
  • Science as a human endeavor
  • Nature of scientific knowledge
  • Historical perspectives

Math:

  • Understand numbers, ways of representing numbers, relationships among numbers, and number systems
  • Understand meanings of operations and how they relate to one another
  • Compute fluently and make reasonable estimates
  • Represent and analyze mathematical situations and structures using algebraic symbols
  • Use mathematical models to represent and understand quantitative relationships
  • Understand measurable attributes of objects and the units, systems, and processes of measurement
  • Apply appropriate techniques, tools and formulas to determine measurements
  • Formulate questions that can be addressed with data and collect, organize, and display relevant data to answer them

Topic: Speed of Sound

This activity is part of the Museum in a Box Lessons