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Livingroom Laboratory

Make Your Own Telephone!

Sound travels through vibrations in the air. Our ears collect these vibrations and then nerves send a message to our brain that we heard a noise. In today’s experiment we will force the vibrations to travel along a string creating your very own telephone.

Tips

  • Before you start, read the whole experiment.

  • Ask an adult to help.

  • Don’t read “What happens and why” until you’ve completed the experiment.

What you’ll need:

  • 2 paper cups

  • 1 needle (or other sharp object)

  • 1 long piece of string

  • A friend to help you

What to do:

  • Use the needle to poke a small hole in the center of the bottom of each paper cup.

  • Carefully thread the string through the hole and tie a knot at the end of the string to keep it in place. (Be sure to tie the knot so that it ends up inside the cup when you pull the string.)

  • Repeat step 2 with the other cup.

  • Hold on to one cup and hand the other to a friend.

  • Slowly back away from each other until the string is tight.

  • Take turns saying something into the cup while the other one listens.

 

Don’t Read This Section Until You Have Completed Your Experiment!

What happens and why: 

By speaking into the cup, your voice vibrates the bottom of the cup which then sends vibrations along the string. These vibrations travel all the way to your friend’s side to shake the bottom of his or her cup creating the same sound that entered at the other end.

Try this experiment again with different types of containers and string. How does the sound change using tin cans or yogurt containers? Does the type of string make a difference?

 

 

 
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The mission of Kingman Museum is to provide lifelong learning opportunities in natural history, the universe, and world cultures for all ages for all time.
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Kingman Museum
175 Limit Street
Battle Creek, MI 49037
Phone: (269) 965-5117 ~ Fax: (269) 965-3330
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