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I would like to know how I can measure the vibration coming from my hand shaking something. My experiment is like this. I put a ball made of strong glass into a closed empty box made of strong glass too. The box is small enough for me to be held with one hand. I have to shake the box with one hand so that the ball is bouncing inside and produce sound.

How do I measure how often (or how intense?) the sound comes out in one minute? This definitely cannot be done just by ear. I know this is a matter of vibration as the slower I shake the less intense the sound is produced. What tool must I use?

Knowing this will help my project a lot as I plan to include it in a competition. I searched in google/youtube and found something called vibrameter I believe? Or vibratometer? I forget but I couldn't understand how to apply it in my case. Also, my physics memory cannot seem to recall any tool useful for this.

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The simplest way to measure the frequency of vibrations and get an idea of relative intensity is to use Audacity or similar software and record/display the sound using a microphone built into a computer or a smartphone.

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  • $\begingroup$ Thanks Sir. I just heard about sound pressure level meter (SPL). What about that device? Then there is vibration meter. I don't quite understand which one to use, including your suggestion. $\endgroup$
    – bms
    Commented Aug 13, 2018 at 4:25
  • $\begingroup$ @bms SPL is based on a microphone. Since you already have a microphone built into a computer or a smartphone. You would want use it only if you needed to make accurate pressure measurements, which, in this case, are not needed. Vibration meter measures acceleration, so, if you attach a vibration sensor to your box, it will give you an accurate picture of the box movements, i.e., more accurate and complete information than a microphone, which would give you just a frequency and an indication of relative intensity of vibrations. Of course, you'll need to acquire such device, set it up, etc. $\endgroup$
    – V.F.
    Commented Aug 13, 2018 at 11:08

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