Boom Tube Science: Make Sound Visible with a Toilet Paper Roll!

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Sound science is so cool. You take something that you can’t see in everyday life, only hear, and put a visual component on it. In our case today, we are using sound science to move a piece of paper. It looks like magic, but it’s SCIENCE!

This experiment demonstrates sound science, the transfer of energy, and physics principles by focusing energy transfer through a toilet paper tube, hitting a piece of paper, and making the paper move.

Let’s focus our energy (that might make more sense after reading the STEM behind) on this awesome experiment!

How to make the Boom Tube Science Visible Sound STEM experiment

Supplies you will need

For this experiment, you’ll need:

• Plastic wrap
• Paper
• Toilet paper roll
• Scissors
• Rubber band
• Tape
• Pencil

Before you start

Instructions

Here is how to do this experiment with your child:

Step 1: Cut out a circle to cover one end of toilet paper roll

Place your piece of paper down on a hard surface. Place the empty toilet paper roll, on one of its ends, down on the paper.

Draw a circle around the toilet paper roll on the paper, then cut out the circle you drew.

Step 2: Cut a small hole in the paper cover

Use your scissors to cut a small hole in the center of the paper circle.

Step 3: Tape paper cover to one end of the toilet paper roll

Place the piece of paper to cover one end of the toilet paper roll and use tape to secure it in place.

This is the side of your toilet paper roll that will face the piece of paper when you’re ready to run the experiment.

Step 4: Cut and place a piece of plastic wrap over other end of toilet paper roll

Now, cut a small piece of plastic wrap and secure it over the opposite end of the toilet paper roll with a rubber band. Be sure to make the plastic wrap as tight as possible.

This is the end of the toilet paper roll that you will hit and make sound waves travel down the roll.

Step 5: Cut a strip of paper and fold in half

Finally, cut a small piece of paper and fold it in half. You will tape one end of the strip to a table and try your best to let the other half of the paper strip hang freely. We will be making the hanging paper strip move with sound!

Step 6: Make the paper move!

Tape half of the folded piece of paper to a tabletop or other flat surface, ensuring that the other half of the folded piece of paper hangs freely (not touching anything).

Aim the side of the toilet paper tube that has the paper and small hole cut out at the hanging piece of paper.

Forcefully tap the plastic wrap with your finger and you will see the hanging piece of paper move! Be sure to watch carefully: the force that you apply to the plastic wrap could be absorbed by the toilet paper tube, making the hanging piece of paper only move slightly.

The STEM behind the Boom Tube Science Visible Sound experiment

This experiment teaches:

• Sound as a vibration
• Transfer of energy
• Force and motion

How it works

This experiment demonstrates sound science, the transfer of energy, and physics principles by focusing energy transfer through a toilet paper tube, hitting a piece of paper, and making the paper move.

When you hit the plastic wrap at one of the ends of the toilet paper tube, the plastic wrap vibrates rapidly, which creates waves of energy through the inside of the tube.

As that sound wave travels down the tube and out of the other side (through that small hole in the paper that we attached to the tube), that wave hits the piece of paper. If the force was great enough, the piece of paper will move back and forth.

Sound as a vibration

The superstar lesson of this fun STEM experiment is that sound is all about vibrations. Since sound is vibration, it’s tough to visualize it. The great thing about this experiment is that you can see the vibration from hitting the side of the toilet paper roll!

When we hit the plastic wrap side of the toilet paper roll, we are making it vibrate. That vibration is basically the plastic wrap rapidly moving back and forth (even though it’s a very small distance). That motion is like tiny pushes and pulls on the air molecules inside the toilet paper roll.

That vibration travels down inside the toilet paper roll and toward the paper at the other end, then concentrates through the tiny hole in the paper and toward the piece of paper. We then see the piece of paper moving back and forth! The sound vibration has made it all the way to the piece of paper!

If it’s still a challenge to visualize for your child, you can talk about dropping a pebble into a very still pond. What happens to the water? Little ripples start traveling from where you dropped the pebble. Those ripples are like what happens when sound waves travel. The vibration you produce by tapping on the plastic wrap is like the pebble.

Transfer of energy

We now know that we are moving sound vibrations down the toilet paper roll to the piece of dangling paper, but we’re also transferring energy down the tube! Those sound vibrations and the transfer of energy go hand-in-hand in this experiment.

The energy from your hand striking the plastic wrap (kinetic energy) is transferred through the air molecules inside the toilet paper roll. That energy continues down to the paper.

The energy from your hand striking the plastic wrap is transferred to the air molecules inside the tube, causing them to vibrate. This energy is then transferred again to the piece of paper at the other end, making it move. This is called a chain reaction (something my kids LOVE talking about).

A chain reaction is kind of like a line of dominoes falling. You push the first domino, then that domino pushes the next one, and so on down the chain.

It’s also important to know that there is energy loss between the time you tap the plastic wrap to the time the vibrations make it to the paper, which is one reason the paper will not move a lot. Loss of energy could be from friction, like some of the energy being absorbed by the toilet paper roll, or even if your plastic wrap or paper is not fastened just right to the toilet paper roll.

Force and motion

Now, we package up what we learned about vibrations from sound and the transfer of energy above and tie them into the laws of force and motion!

This experiment demonstrates how a force (your hand hitting the plastic wrap) initiates a chain reaction involving vibration from sound and energy transfer. That chain reaction ultimately results in another force that causes motion (the movement of the piece of folded paper).

We’re watching fundamental physics principles at work!

The force that travels through the toilet paper roll exerts a force on the folded piece of paper. If we hit the plastic wrap hard enough to allow enough force to travel through the toilet paper roll and make it to the paper, it will cause the paper to move.

More experiments about sound science to try out with your child

• Dancing Rice: Visualizing how our bodies interpret sound
• Musical Water Glasses: Sound science while making music
• Ringing Spoons: Sound science using 2 simple household objects
• Listen and Learn: DIY Stethoscope Experiment for Children