Flame Tube: Difference between revisions

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== Age ==
{| class="wikitable" style="color:black; background-color:#ddd; margin-left: auto; float:right"
| [[Physics]]:
| Sound, Waves
|-
| Grade Range:
| [[Middle School]], [[High School]]
|-
| Format:
| [[Stage]]
|}


Elementary School, Middle School, High School
This features our six foot Reuben's Tube, and is a very impressive demonstration on sound waves. this demonstration is a popular request, and is easily adapted to present to a variety of audiences.


==Format ==
== Materials ==
 
Stage Show


== Materials ==
* Flame Tube w/Hose
* Propane Tank
* Speaker w/Amplifier
* Tone Generator w/Cable
* Headphone Jack Cable
* Lighters (2)
* Optional: Slinkies
* Optional: Keyboard w/Cable Adapter
* Cellophane (for repairs)


    Flame tube
    Propane tank
    Speaker
    Tone generator
    Amplifier
    MP3/CD player
    Cord for portable music player
    Lighter


== Safety Precautions ==
== Safety Precautions ==


Science Theatre demonstrators must keep the safety of themselves and their audience in mind at all times. All Science Theatre demonstrators must have read through the Safety Training page. The ST Safety Box with first aid kit, fire extinguisher, etc. should always be available to demonstrators. Always wear safety gloves, glasses, and a labcoat if handling chemicals; always perform potentially dangerous demonstrations at a safe distance from the audience; and always keep a very close eye on any volunteers you call from the audience.
Safety glasses must be worn at all times during this demonstration. The Flame Tube requires training on proper handling prior to use. This demonstration is sensitive to wind, so do not use outdoors or in a breezy room. Do not let the audience come any closer than six feet, and ask the audience to be quiet during the demonstration; it is sensitive to background noise.


This demo of course involves fire so be sure to have a fire extinguisher handy as well as keeping the audience a safe distance from the tube itself. Be sure to turn off the propane when done! After the demo, tilt the tube to one end and light the remaining propane to burn it away. You can place one side of the tube on top of the speaker box; this set up seems fairly stable and hasn’t failed us yet. As a word to the wise, be careful where the feet of the tube are as they may slide as you pick one end of the tube up.
Read the Fire Safety section of the [[Demonstration Safety]] Page before using this demonstration.


== Preparation ==
Make sure the propane tank is full as well as having lighters that are full.


== Demonstration ==
== Demonstration ==


Once the propane tank is connected to the flame tube, turn the tank on and begin lighting the holes closest to the hose. Once all the holes have been lit, you can play a tone through the tube. Play several different tones as to demonstrate the different wavelengths and frequencies. We currently use the frequencies 206Hz and 412Hz and they seem to work pretty well. As a finale, play some music through the tube to show how all the different frequencies appear through the tube. “Iron Man” by Black Sabbath has worked well in the past and seems to fit the visual of fire, though others will work well, too.
''NOTE: When presenting this demonstration, you will need two tables to set up. Make sure to bring a power strip and extension cord!''


== What to Say ==
Preparation: Set the Flame Tube on the first table, with both sets of feet rested on the same table. On a second table, set the speaker next to the Flame Tube, putting the speaker about 1/2 in away from the cellophane seal on the side of the tube, or as close as it can get without touching the tube. Next to the speaker, place the amplifier and tone generator. Connect the tone generator cable to the amplifier using the back port labeled "Phono". put the switch next to the port in the "phono" position. Make sure the main volume for the speaker is at zero, then plug in the amplifier and tone generator and turn them both on. Connect the propane tank to the flame tube, and before the start of the show open the propane tank fully. Attempt to ignite the holes on top of the propane tank once every minute, and once lit let it stand so the flames can grow.


Traditionally, this demo follows a presentation about waves, normally with the use of slinkies. This is not a requirement, but it makes things easier.
===Optional introduction===


"When I say the word “waves” what do you think of? (Allow for answers, we’re looking for anything wave related including light, sound, radiation or water. Water is what we will go with to continue the presentation) Yeah, water like at the beach right? What do those look like? Perfect, up and down, you got it. There are actually two types of waves; transverse: up and down like water, and longitudinal: side to side. "
# Ask the audience for examples of different types of waves. After hearing a few examples, State that there are three types of waves: Transverse, Longitudinal, and Surface Waves.
# State that Transverse waves have an up-and-down motion. Ask the audience if they know how to do "the Wave", and have them do the wave back and forth across the room!
# Pull out the slinky, and have your co-presenter hold one end as you hold the other. Working together, use the slinky to show a Transverse wave and a Longitudinal wave.
# State that a Longitudinal wave is a Compression, and call up 4-5 volunteers. Have the volunteers stand in a line, with the speaker (you) on one end and the receiver (other presenter) on the other.
# Turn and say "Hello" to the receiver. When you do, travel forward and bump into the first volunteer. Have the volunteers then travel down the line, bumping into each other until the last one bumps into the receiver. Explain how this shows a compression wave, with the "up" motion being two volunteers bumping into each other, and the "down" when they are separated.
# State that a Surface wave is a combination of these two waves. Give examples of surface waves, like an ocean wave (water presses together, which creates the up-and-down motion we see) and seismic waves, or how earthquakes travel.


"What we're going to do now is actually show you these waves using slinkies! Can I get a volunteer? (Use the volunteer to demonstrate the different waves just mentioned. Laying the slinky down on the floor, hold one end and have them shake their end from side to side to make transverse waves; hold your end and have them push theirs in toward you and back out to make a longitudinal wave) When we move the slinky up and down we can see what we called “transverse” waves earlier. If we push in on the slinky we can get the waves to move side to side. Does anyone remember what these waves were called? Longitudinal, great! These are a little harder to see, but you can see that the slinky gets really close together at some points, and really far apart at others. (Perhaps demonstrate some of the later concepts such as amplitude, etc. by making the waves bigger or smaller, etc.) Thanks you can go sit back down!" (You may even want to use two different volunteers for each wave to increase participation.)
===Flame Tube===


"When we think about this wave (we’ll use a transverse one being made by a slinky for now) what are some ways we could describe it? How big it is, how long it is, how quickly it moves, how many of them there are? Those are all perfect. For starters, let’s look at how many waves there are. This is called the frequency. So you can think of frequency as the number of waves; high frequency: lots of waves, low frequency: not so many waves. Another property we can talk about is how long the wave is. If we look at this length here, the length between the top (peak) here and the top here, that is called the wavelength. Makes sense right, the length of a wave is the wavelength? Perfect. So if you notice, when we increase the frequency, we decrease the wavelength. If you want to squeeze more waves in to the same amount of space, they need to get smaller. Everyone see that? Great. Now, there is another property we can talk about, and that is how big this wave is. This is called the amplitude, a big movement is a big amplitude and a little movement is a little amplitude."
# Explain briefly the setup you are using; A speaker system is set against the Flame Tube, and by turning on the speaker you will put a sound wave through the tube, which we will see as a Transverse wave because of it compressing the propane inside the tube.
# Set the tone generator to 210Hz, and turn up the speaker volume to 1/2 full. The flames will move, creating the wave!
# Turn down the speaker volume, and explain the parts of the wave. State that the amplitude, or height of the wave, is adjusted by making the sound louder or quieter. Show this by turning the speaker up to 3/4 full, then off again.
# Ask the audience what will happen if you were to double the frequency. If a younger audience, ask them if they should see more waves or less waves if the note became a higher pitch. Set the tone generator to 420Hz and turn the volume up 1/2 full. The number of waves doubles!
# Flip the switch on the back of the amplifier to "Aux". Connect your phone or music player, and select a song to play for them! Songs that work well are:
## Secrets (OneRepublic)
## Let it Go (from Frozen)
## Photograph (Ed Sheeran)
## Fly Me to the Moon (Frank Sinatra)
## Iron Man (Black Sabbath)
## Stay the Night (Zedd, Haley Williams)
## Bangarang (Skrillex)
*''NOTE: Use the two lighters to keep re-igniting the propane while you have a song playing. The music will put out flames as it plays. Only play 30-45 seconds of any one song, so that you can play a few different songs.''
* ''When you finish presenting the Flame Tube, turn off the propane tank and detach it. Place the speaker on its side, and prop the flame tube on it, with a set of feet resting on the speaker. Ignite the propane coming out of the lower end of the tube, and let it burn off until it is time to pack up.''


"So now you’re all wave experts right? Exactly. So, let’s talk about sound. Sound travels as a wave, but not an up and down wave like the slinky. Nope, sound travels side to side. Does anyone remember what that was called? It’s not transverse, it starts with an “l”…Right! Longitudinal. Sound is a longitudinal wave, not only that, but sound is a compression wave. Sound travels by compressing the molecules as it travels. It is a little hard to visualize, but longitudinal waves have all the same properties that we just talked about. They have a frequency: the number of waves, they have a wavelength and they have an amplitude. Now, when it comes to sound, those properties have an effect on what we hear. Let’s start with the easy one, amplitude. What do you think a big amplitude means with a sound? Right, it’s bigger or louder. So amplitude tells us how loud the sound is. Frequency is a little hard to guess, so I’ll give you a hint. The number of waves helps us change how the sound “sounds”. Any guesses? Right, higher or lower pitch/tone. So a high frequency is a higher pitch and a low frequency is a lower pitch. "


"So before with the slinky, you could see everything changing, right? Can you guys see sound waves? No, not really. So what we’ve got here is a way to help you visualize sound waves. Let me explain this contraption here. We have this long metal tube, connected to a propane tank and it has a bunch of little holes in the top. So when we fill this up with propane, we can light the gas off the top and it will look like a row of candles. Next to that, we have our speaker, hooked up to a tone generator and an amplifier [these may be unfamiliar words to the audience, so be sure to take extra time to explain just what is going to happen, e.g. “When we turn all this on, this speaker is going to play a single note which will travel through this tube. The tone generator lets me change the pitch from higher to lower (this would be a good time to actually demonstrate the different pitch before lighting the flame tube, so they understand what you're going to be doing). Now we're going to light all the propane.”] So, what do you think this will look like if we play a note from this speaker down the tube? Let’s take a look.
== Why It Is ==


"So what did it look like? Yeah, like a bunch of waves! Let’s look again. See the high spots and low spots? Those correspond to areas of high compression and low compression. Ok, so that was one frequency. What do you think will happen if I change the frequency? I’ll give you a hint; I’m going to increase it. Right, there will be more waves! See, just like you said; increase the frequency, increase the number of waves."
===Short Explanation===


"Ok, so that is just one single note. How often does that happen in real life? Yeah, not too often. So what do you think will happen if we play something like music? Let’s take a look. Pretty cool stuff right?"
'''''COMING SOON'''''
 
== Why It Is ==


Sound waves travel through the air as vibrations referred to as “longitudinal waves”. This just means that the waves oscillate in the direction in which they are travelling. Because of this, they bunch up in some areas and are more spread out in others. When this happens inside the tube, this causes the propane to be compressed in certain areas and as a result it gets forced out of the tube with more pressure. This greater pressure creates a larger flame.
===Full Explanation===


== Real Life Examples ==
'''''COMING SOON'''''


Sound waves
== Tips and Tricks ==
- Try to avoid using the Flame Tube at the end of a show, and to not run the Flame Tube for any more than 25 minutes at a time. This is to minimize any fire hazard, and to allow time so the flame tube can empty after a presentation.

Revision as of 17:40, 29 February 2016

Physics: Sound, Waves
Grade Range: Middle School, High School
Format: Stage

This features our six foot Reuben's Tube, and is a very impressive demonstration on sound waves. this demonstration is a popular request, and is easily adapted to present to a variety of audiences.

Materials

  • Flame Tube w/Hose
  • Propane Tank
  • Speaker w/Amplifier
  • Tone Generator w/Cable
  • Headphone Jack Cable
  • Lighters (2)
  • Optional: Slinkies
  • Optional: Keyboard w/Cable Adapter
  • Cellophane (for repairs)


Safety Precautions

Safety glasses must be worn at all times during this demonstration. The Flame Tube requires training on proper handling prior to use. This demonstration is sensitive to wind, so do not use outdoors or in a breezy room. Do not let the audience come any closer than six feet, and ask the audience to be quiet during the demonstration; it is sensitive to background noise.

Read the Fire Safety section of the Demonstration Safety Page before using this demonstration.


Demonstration

NOTE: When presenting this demonstration, you will need two tables to set up. Make sure to bring a power strip and extension cord!

Preparation: Set the Flame Tube on the first table, with both sets of feet rested on the same table. On a second table, set the speaker next to the Flame Tube, putting the speaker about 1/2 in away from the cellophane seal on the side of the tube, or as close as it can get without touching the tube. Next to the speaker, place the amplifier and tone generator. Connect the tone generator cable to the amplifier using the back port labeled "Phono". put the switch next to the port in the "phono" position. Make sure the main volume for the speaker is at zero, then plug in the amplifier and tone generator and turn them both on. Connect the propane tank to the flame tube, and before the start of the show open the propane tank fully. Attempt to ignite the holes on top of the propane tank once every minute, and once lit let it stand so the flames can grow.

Optional introduction

  1. Ask the audience for examples of different types of waves. After hearing a few examples, State that there are three types of waves: Transverse, Longitudinal, and Surface Waves.
  2. State that Transverse waves have an up-and-down motion. Ask the audience if they know how to do "the Wave", and have them do the wave back and forth across the room!
  3. Pull out the slinky, and have your co-presenter hold one end as you hold the other. Working together, use the slinky to show a Transverse wave and a Longitudinal wave.
  4. State that a Longitudinal wave is a Compression, and call up 4-5 volunteers. Have the volunteers stand in a line, with the speaker (you) on one end and the receiver (other presenter) on the other.
  5. Turn and say "Hello" to the receiver. When you do, travel forward and bump into the first volunteer. Have the volunteers then travel down the line, bumping into each other until the last one bumps into the receiver. Explain how this shows a compression wave, with the "up" motion being two volunteers bumping into each other, and the "down" when they are separated.
  6. State that a Surface wave is a combination of these two waves. Give examples of surface waves, like an ocean wave (water presses together, which creates the up-and-down motion we see) and seismic waves, or how earthquakes travel.

Flame Tube

  1. Explain briefly the setup you are using; A speaker system is set against the Flame Tube, and by turning on the speaker you will put a sound wave through the tube, which we will see as a Transverse wave because of it compressing the propane inside the tube.
  2. Set the tone generator to 210Hz, and turn up the speaker volume to 1/2 full. The flames will move, creating the wave!
  3. Turn down the speaker volume, and explain the parts of the wave. State that the amplitude, or height of the wave, is adjusted by making the sound louder or quieter. Show this by turning the speaker up to 3/4 full, then off again.
  4. Ask the audience what will happen if you were to double the frequency. If a younger audience, ask them if they should see more waves or less waves if the note became a higher pitch. Set the tone generator to 420Hz and turn the volume up 1/2 full. The number of waves doubles!
  5. Flip the switch on the back of the amplifier to "Aux". Connect your phone or music player, and select a song to play for them! Songs that work well are:
    1. Secrets (OneRepublic)
    2. Let it Go (from Frozen)
    3. Photograph (Ed Sheeran)
    4. Fly Me to the Moon (Frank Sinatra)
    5. Iron Man (Black Sabbath)
    6. Stay the Night (Zedd, Haley Williams)
    7. Bangarang (Skrillex)
  • NOTE: Use the two lighters to keep re-igniting the propane while you have a song playing. The music will put out flames as it plays. Only play 30-45 seconds of any one song, so that you can play a few different songs.
  • When you finish presenting the Flame Tube, turn off the propane tank and detach it. Place the speaker on its side, and prop the flame tube on it, with a set of feet resting on the speaker. Ignite the propane coming out of the lower end of the tube, and let it burn off until it is time to pack up.


Why It Is

Short Explanation

COMING SOON

Full Explanation

COMING SOON

Tips and Tricks

- Try to avoid using the Flame Tube at the end of a show, and to not run the Flame Tube for any more than 25 minutes at a time. This is to minimize any fire hazard, and to allow time so the flame tube can empty after a presentation.

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