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Reprinted by permission of Dick Berg, University of Maryland, for use on this website.

The demonstrations contained and referenced herein are listed for the purposes of cataloging and describing physics demonstrations which should be conducted only under the direction of a trained instructional support professional or physicist. These demonstrations are not presented for the purpose of being conducted by persons unconnected to this Facility and/or persons not consulting with or being supervised by the recognized instructional support professional or physicist and his/her staff. The University is responsible only for those demonstrations carried out using its own equipment using established safety and scheduling policies, and bears no responsibility for those choosing to use this source material for their own purposes. All demonstrations described and contained herein are public domain, and can also be found in reference materials in libraries, bookstores, and electronic sources.

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The speed of sound in solids can also be easily shown with the SoftScope^TM module, a laptop computer, and a couple of microphones connected to various metal rods. In our case, we use brass, iron, and aluminum rods.  Usually we space the two microphones at 50 cm, and set the SoftScope for single trigger.  Use the striker rod to trigger and the measurements off the computer screen to calculate the speed of sound.  Either transverse or longitudinal speeds can be shown.  Striking the rod on the end will give the speed for longitudinal waves.  Striking the rod on the side but towards one end will give the speed for transverse waves.  These speeds will be different.