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The "Rijke tube" seen in the photograph at the left below, sometimes called a "hoot tube," is a plastic tube with a nichrome heating coil in the tube about one-quarter of the way up the tube, as seen in the photograph at the right below. When it is activated by passing electrical current through the nichrome wire, it responds by emitting a loud tone, which in this case is the fundamental frequency of the tube acting as an acoustical open tube. Click your mouse on the photograph at the left below to hear the nice sound.
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If we heat up the nichrome wire so that the Rijke tube emits its tone, then rotate the tube so that it is horizontal:
What will then happen when I return the tube to its initial upright orientation?
Click here for Answer #303 after January 28, 2008.
