The phenomenon of the singing wineglass is familiar to many. Most people have run a finger along the rim of a wine glass with the right speed and pressure to get it to whistle a tone or perhaps heard a glass harmonica being played. However, have you ever noticed and wondered why the vibrations caused by a finger on a glass produce a pulsating sound, rather than a steady, constant-amplitude vibration? Further exploration reveals that the sound and pulsations of a wine glass vary depending on the way the wine glass is stimulated. In this paper, we investigate and model the characteristic sounds produced by three different cases: the pulsating sound exhibited by a finger run along the rim of a wine glass, the steady tone produced by a stationary finger on a rotating wine glass, and the decaying pulsations exhibited by a struck rotating wine glass. Analyzing the qualitative differences among these three cases provides opportunities for students to hone experimental, modeling, and data analysis skills in an intermediate level undergraduate experimental physics course.
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The Fourier spectrum of a singing wine glass
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October 2019
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October 01 2019
The Fourier spectrum of a singing wine glass
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Reuben Leatherman;
Reuben Leatherman
Department of Physics, Portland State University
, P.O. Box 751, Portland, Oregon 97207
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Justin C. Dunlap;
Justin C. Dunlap
Department of Physics, Portland State University
, P.O. Box 751, Portland, Oregon 97207
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Ralf Widenhorn
Ralf Widenhorn
Department of Physics, Portland State University
, P.O. Box 751, Portland, Oregon 97207
Search for other works by this author on:
Reuben Leatherman
Department of Physics, Portland State University
, P.O. Box 751, Portland, Oregon 97207
Justin C. Dunlap
Department of Physics, Portland State University
, P.O. Box 751, Portland, Oregon 97207
Ralf Widenhorn
Department of Physics, Portland State University
, P.O. Box 751, Portland, Oregon 97207Am. J. Phys. 87, 829–835 (2019)
Article history
Received:
May 21 2019
Accepted:
August 09 2019
Citation
Reuben Leatherman, Justin C. Dunlap, Ralf Widenhorn; The Fourier spectrum of a singing wine glass. Am. J. Phys. 1 October 2019; 87 (10): 829–835. https://doi.org/10.1119/1.5124230
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