Monday, 21 August 2017

Clock chimes in the Chatsworth Hotel, Worthing


The clock chimes are cylinders that are hit. They are the ones at the back. A stationary wave is set up in the air in the pipe. It has an anti-node at each end. This is a point of maximum oscillation. The node is in the middle. Thus each tube contains half a wavelength. The longest pipe was about 50 cm long so the wavelength is 1m. Using the wave equation, wave speed = frequency x wavelength, then frequency = 330/1 = 330 Hz assuming the speed of sound to be 330 metres per second. This is definitely in the audible range for humans which goes as low as 20 Hz. 330 Hz is G#. The next whole tone up would be F# which is 372 Hz giving a wavelength of 88 cm and pipe length of 44 cm. A pipe that is 6 cm shorter seems reasonable looking at the picture.