Abstract:

The sense of hearing is very important for human life. It is also a powerful source of information, since we can detect sound waves from 20 Hz to 20 kHz approx. (3 orders of magnitude) and with different intensities, 12 orders of magnitude approx. It is also an important aspect to understand physics, and thus, included in most of general Physics courses. However, there is little use of sound as source of information to understand/test physics in Lab practices, compared for example with the use of video techniques.

In this paper, we try to fill in this gap showing the usefulness of the application of sound recording and its analysis in lab practices of Physics subject of first-year Engineering University studies. Sound recording is very simple and implemented in popular technology tools, for instance smartphones. The analysis can also be done very effectively in a simple way with available free open-source tools, such as audacity. So, it can be easily implemented and extensively used, even in the case of non-face-to-face classes, which is of utmost importance in pandemics time. In fact, the use of this technique has allowed to transform some classical face-to-face lab practice sessions into remote ones.

Some examples and experiences of the application of sound recording and its analysis in Lab practices will be described: the free fall study and coefficient of restitution of a ball bouncing from a certain height, the calculation of velocity of vehicles by analyzing the Doppler effect of the noise produced, the vibration and stationary waves in strings and/or surfaces, echo-localization, etc. With this, we will be able to conclude that this is a powerful technique that should be considered, alone or in combination with other techniques (e. g. video analysis or smartphone sensor recordings) when planning the lab practices of Physics courses.

Keywords:

Sound recording and analysis, Physics Lab sessions, Audacity.