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Water glasses: the music experiment
Five bottles, some water. Mika listens and tells you: a little more water, or a little less. At the end he plays your scale.
I listen to every bottle and tell you: more water or less. At the end I play all five.
I hear: –
The microphone switches on when you tap, listens for three seconds and switches off again. Nothing is recorded or sent.
Your scale
How the experiment works
Stand five identical bottles in a row. Fill the first one about half full of water. Tap the button and blow very gently across the top, like a flute, until it hoots. That's your first note. For each next bottle Mika tells you whether it needs more water or less. Pour in small sips. When all five are right, Mika plays your scale, and then Mary Had a Little Lamb: it fits exactly on five bottles.
Glasses work too, but you tap them: very gently, with a wooden spoon or a pencil, on the rim. Switch to “Tap” at the top.
Why does more water change the note?
Tapping, the note goes lower. The glass rings because its wall wobbles. Water makes the wall heavier, so it wobbles more slowly, and slow wobbling is a low note. More water, lower note.
Blowing, the note goes higher. Here it isn't the bottle that sounds but the air inside it, like in a flute. The more water, the less air is left, and a little air wobbles faster. More water, higher note.
The same water, two directions: that's the best moment of the experiment. Try both with the same bottle.
For parents and teachers
An experiment for a preschool group or a first class, about a quarter of an hour. You need five identical plastic bottles (half a litre, smooth neck) or five identical glasses, a jug of water, a wooden spoon and a towel. Glasses only with a grown-up at the table.
How it works in a group: one child blows or taps, the others listen. First everyone guesses: will the note go up or down if we add water? Then one child pours and the next one checks. Every child gets a turn, and at the end the whole group plays Mary Had a Little Lamb on the bottles (the numbers under the scale say which bottle is next). Little ones find blowing hard: then a grown-up blows and the children pour.
The page only listens when someone taps, and only for three seconds. The sound is read in the browser and forgotten at once: no recording, no account, nothing is sent. There are no scores and no comparing children. At the end you can take the scale into Brumm Kids, where a marimba plays it over a beat and the children can sing along.