I teach Physics and have some tuning forks. I'd like to build resonance boxes for them:

Example:

http://acumenlabware.com/wave-sound/tuning-fork-on-resonance-box.html

Does anyone have experience building these?  For example, what kind of wood is needed?

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You can build them from plywood. And as a physicist / teacher of physics, you know they will work, if they are constructed correctly. But they are normally built from hardwoods, typically traditional tonewoods like maple, spruce, cedar and mahogany. As a physicist / teacher of physics, you know why hardwoods should work better.

The ones in your link are built from either fir or maple. It's really the size and wall thickness of the boxes that are important, not necessarily the material. You could even do the resonance experiment using different lengths and thicknesses of PVC pipe. Wine glasses filled with water, or empty soft drink or beer bottles, are classic resonance boxes, too.


And this was a Kewl high school physics link:
http://kellerphysics.com/acoustics/Lapp.pdf

The boxes pictured appear to be a laminated material. You can buy buy birch laminate at most big box, hardware stores. Birch is a good sound wood. As for dimensions it's hard to estimate, you could maybe figure something out using the dimension of the fork in comparison to the box. Not alot to go on but might get you started.

When I Googled resonance boxes and tuning forks I was amazed at how much information was available on this experiment.  I would go with the Baltic Birch plywood from the local craft store for $5.00.

Baltic birch is good. Old Harmony gits were made from it, and many high end speaker and amp cabinets use it.

Thanks Ron.  I bought some today.  Now, the trick is to make a square (right angle), reasonably strong box with my rather limited carpentry skills.

David,

With patience and a coping saw, you can make finger jointed boxes. Or you can just butt join them by gluing them together, using a right angle square and a rubber band. There are also right angle and 4-corner strap clamps available at Lowes and Home Depot that can get you, ahem, squared away.
Cardboard boxes don't work too well, though ;-) they do work, but wood resonates better.

One trick I do in my Physics class is with a slinky and empty, open topped cardboard boxes of different sizes.  If you shake a slinky back and forth, you'll hear some sound, but not much.  Then, if you hang one end of the slinky over one side of a box (wedge the vertical side between the coils a half inch or so from the slinky end) guess what you'll get?  The sound of the blasters from star Wars.  I swear that they must have done this with a small box to create that sound!

So, cardboard works for that application.

Yeah, you can also get a good tube wave going out of a Pringles can, ;-)

Oh, and here's how the blaster sound was created:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaster_(Star_Wars)

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