Breaking a Wine Glass with Sound—Apparatus Under Construction

Setup

  1. Clamp glass by its neck using the clamp inside the GlassBuster, positioning the bell between the two speakers
  2. approximate resonant frequency using a FFT app in your phone
  3. connect speakers to high power Yamaha amplifier in the mono setting (from output 1 of A to output 2 of B
  4. connect function generator to input A using the quarter inch jack and necessary adapters (find audio adapters on shelf G4)
    1. wear ear protection
    2. on a low volume, by trial and error, match generator frequency to bell resonant frequency (if you are close thanks to the FFT, you should hear the bell ring just after turning volume completely down - this indicates that you are near resonance and there is significant coupling between sound frequency and bell resonant frequency)
    3. once you are sure you are in the resonant frequency, turn volume halfway or more - respect times set by the GlassBuster on its front as indicated by the lights
    4. if you are in fact in resonance, by the time you reach the green or yellow light, the glass will shatter
    5. more wine glasses can be found in L2