The tin-can telephone: An example of sound propagation and communication for project listen up

Abstract

The tin-can telephone can be used to illustrate the basic concepts of sound waves and sound-structure interaction. It can also be used to illustrate advanced concepts of frequency response and speech intelligibility in acoustic communications. For the proposed demonstration, students will construct a tin-can telephone from household materials and observe its performance from a variety of acoustic tests. Students will observe sound transmission and discover that some sounds are transmitted with greater clarity than others. A measured frequency response function for several tin-can telephones constructed from different materials will be provided to the student to illustrate the concept of frequency response and speech intelligibility. © 2011 Acoustical Society of America.