Describing Acceleration with a Tin Pan

Try this

Attach 6 or more hex nuts with uniform spacing, using a ruler, to a single strand of string, suspend the string vertically from one end, and then drop it onto a pie pan. Listen to the pattern of the sound produced. What does this suggest about the motion of things as they fall? Try to re-position the hex nuts along the string so that the sound produced is a uniform series of beats (equal time intervals). Using the Sound Meter mode of Physics Toolbox Suite, record these sounds, and refine your spacings until the time intervals are as uniform as possible.

Challenge yourself

• What do you notice about the physical spacing between each of the nuts in order to produce a uniform series of beats?
• Create a graph of Distance of each hex nut (from the first hex nut) versus the beat number. What mathematical model describes the curve produced?