Ok, I am doing a lab and do not understand my results. We measured by hand the length in m of a tube at which our tone generator hit a point of inflection, meaning we had found the 1st then the 3rd harmonic.
We did this with 5 different frequencies. We were then told to subtract 1st-3rd to get a third data set. When graphed, this data had to have a slope of speed of sound. The third subtracted data set had least percentage error.
I do not understand WHY this is other than human error. The prompt exactly:
Why is this set of data more accurate than the others? (the third subtracted data set is set C)
Assuming you had your best results with graph c), how far off is is the first harmonic data from the ¼ wavelength indicated by c)?
How far off is the 3rd harmonic data from the ¼ wavelength indicated by c)?
Here is all the data. The order of accuracy went highest at subtracted values to lowest at 1st harmonic. I would think this would be the derived 2nd harmonic, but an open closed pipe has only odd harmonics.
How can I explain this?