Making Music With Water and Bottles

by Lauri Griffin | More from this Blogger

26 Jun 2008 08:23 PM

Here's a fun activity for the end of a summer dinner or picnic. Take empty glass bottles or water glasses and fill them with different amounts of water. When you tap gently on the bottles or glasses with a spoon they make a neat chiming noise. If the kids can't manage to tap gently with a spoon try giving them a wooden spoon or stick to use, or save the activity for when they are older. I also wouldn't do this with my best crystal.

Experiment with different levels of water in the glasses.. Your children will quickly figure out that the more water in the glass means the sound will be a higher pitch. Take some of the water away and make a lower pitched sound. Older children may be interested in why this works. Tapping the bottles causes the glass to vibrate. The vibrations are what we hear as sounds. The water dampens the vibrations. So more water means fewer vibrations which means we hear a lower pitch. Less water allows more vibrations, so the bottle vibrates faster which causes a higher pitch.

If you have eight bottles and a good ear you can even make a simple xylophone and tap out basic tunes like "Mary Had a Little Lamb" or "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star". The kids may even put on a concert for you. Adults are sometimes just as charmed by this activity as children. The musically inclined ones will usually try playing more sophisticated songs like "Stairway to Heaven" or other songs from their youth. It can be pretty funny.

Even if you only have a couple of bottles or glasses available, this is still a fun activity and a good easy science experiment.

Also See:

More Fun Science Experiments

Wacky and Wild Science Experiments

Smash It! Crash It! Crunch It! - Rain Newcomb & Bobby Mercer

Music - Food for the Soul

Learn more about Lauri Griffin

Lauri lives in Colorado with her husband and three sons. Amidst all the laundry and packing of lunches, she tries to keep parenting fun.

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