How to break a wine glass with sound

This is for a physics project. Here's a little more detail on the steps:

Step 1: the program we used took the audio sample and used a Fourier Transform to convert it into a graph of the frequencies up to ~11,000 Hz, and their relative magnitude. The glass used in step 1 broke around 630.4 Hz, but the footage was bad so for step 3 a different glass was used, that had a resonance frequency of around 592 Hz.

Step 2: if you're around (+/- .5 Hz) the resonance frequency of the glass and if the amplitude of the sound (AKA volume) is loud enough (we used earplugs), you'll see the rim of the glass waving like that.

Step 3: we basically repeated step 2, except with a higher amplitude of the sound.

I should also mention that the bright light you see in the video is a strobe light, going at about 590-600 flashes per second (4 Hz higher than the sound), each flash lasts 10 microseconds. You can't see the movement of the glass without some sort of strobe light or way of slowing down the movement, because the glass was oscillating nearly 600 times per second. If you have any questions feel free to post them and I'll answer.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• physics
• break
• glass
• resonance
• frequency
• this
• walks
• into
• wooden
• enclosure

[pwsresonantie]

what was the amplitude you used because we are trying to de the experiment too but it failed so could you send me the way it must be done please

we have the right frequency and we saw the straw trmebling but we cant break the glass coukd you please help

[nightmyst999]

I don't know what the exact amplitude was; the program I used didn't measure that correctly. The straw bouncing around means that you're very close to the resonant frequency, but not necessarily exact. I suggest you try doing a range of frequencies, started at about 5 hz below your current frequency, to 5 hz above it. I suggest you wear earplugs, then turn up the volume to the point where anyone not wearing earplugs would plug their ears. I believe around 90 decibels should work.

[robinderuiter]

MMM guy can you tell me the frequentie u used to acctualy break the glass, cuz we are trieing it at our school, but we haven't found the right Hz yet, so can you tell it? =) would be nice =)

Thnx Robin

[nightmyst999]

Every class has a different resonance frequency, the glasses that I used varied between 590 and 640 Hz. However, another glass we tried broke at around 1000 Hz.

[radwanwwwwww]

pleasssseeee ??????? :(

[nightmyst999]

I already said, I used MatLab. The code was written just for this project, so I doubt easily it's available. The important part of the program was doing a Fourier Transform on the recorded audio. You just need a program to do that. I don't know of any that easily do it, though.

[wsetrecords]

And that, is how Stanley Myer broke the water molecule efficiently enough to run a car off water.

[Kai327]

haha i loved that and how you took us through the whole process.

[TheDmcatc]

lol 1:17

[poisen06]

@toonsliverspider A baseball bat could work.

[poisen06]

Awesome dancing straw! :D

[BroadwayTheatreGurl]

HOW LOUD DID YOU HAVE TO PLAY THE FREQUENCY FOR IT TO  BREAK? (decibels please. Oh and sorry for screaming at you, but i got your attention!)

[iToucheverything]

It's an E-Flat!! Yay for perfect pitch!! :D Lol. But the glass broke when they played a D...

[Contry]

That looks like Matlab's plots

[AlexBlackRecords]

@BrandonShayMusic Good questions. I wonder also the weight or density of the crystal must be a very imporatant variable. I wonder if it's generally true as it seems the more glass/ crystal weight and size the lower the pitch and resonance will be. Large crystal bowls have a deep low note and a small glass a high note.

[AlexBlackRecords]

Thats some cool software and synthesizer. I'm sure I could do it iwh my synth too but finding the frequency maybe tricky. I think I could get close enough by ear and then fine tune it, it has several oscillators, and my amps should be more than loud enough. It might be more cool to see if I can do it my guitar. Is there enough sustain? I'm not sure the the guitar has the right range I think it's a bit lower than this even at it's high notes.

[toonsliverspider]

................ i am a kid so i don know can you tell us if there anything a kid can have that can break glass?

[brianderson1]

You can't break a glass with just 90 dB. You need at least 120.