How Sound Travels Through Air and Solids

Grade Level: K-2; Type: Physics

Objective:

This classic children’s game demonstrates the differing abilities of sound to travel
through air vs. through a solid.

Materials:
Paper or plastic cups (yogurt containers are durable)
Scissors
String
Tape
A friend

Experimental Procedure:

1. Using the point of the scissors, poke a hole in the middle of the bottom of
each cup. (Depending on your age, it may be better to have an adult do this
step.)
2. Stand a few feet away from a friend and talk to each other in normal (not
yelling) voices. Keep moving apart until you can no longer hear each other
well enough to have a conversation.
3. Hold one of the cups up to your mouth and speak into it while your friend
listens into the other. Now can you hear each other?
4. Next cut a length of string long enough to stretch between you and your friend when you could no longer talk to each other.
5. Poke the ends of the string through the holes in the bottoms of the cups (poke it upwards through the bottom) and tape the ends
securely to these bottoms.
6. Hold onto one cup and have your friend hold onto the other and walk away until the string is taut (pulled straight, not sagging).
7. Talk into one cup while your friend holds the other cup over her ear. (Remember to keep the string taut.) Switch. Now can you
hear each other through the cups? (Remember to move the cups from your mouth to your ear and back depending on if you’re
listening or speaking)
8. Why did attaching the cups with a piece of string allow you to hear each other? More fun with this project!
9. Variations: Try it with longer and longer pieces of string. How far apart can you get and still have the “phone” work? Try different
widths/types of string. What happens if you use different sizes, shapes, materials of cups? What if someone grabs onto the string
while you’re talking?

Author: Shelly Smith

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