The Sound of a Laser Blaster: Acoustic Dispersion in Metal Springs Analyzed with Mobile Devices and Open-Source PC Audio Software

• Kim Ludwig-Petsch ^[1] ; Michael Hirth ^[1] ; Jochen Kuhn ^[1]
  1. [1] University of Kaiserslautern

     University of Kaiserslautern

     Kreisfreie Stadt Kaiserslautern, Alemania

     
• Localización: The Physics Teacher, ISSN 0031-921X, Vol. 60, Nº. 1, 2022, págs. 28-33
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • The typical sound of George Lucas’ laser blaster in the “Star Wars” series is well known. What does a laser blaster in “Star Wars” sound like, and why? Here we show a simple way to produce this sound by using low-cost lab material, like a spring or a Slinky (Fig. 1). Building on the work of Crawford, who analyzed the sound of a Slinky using oscilloscopes, we present a technique for analyzing the sound using mobile devices. For a deeper quantitative analysis, a PC with open-source software is used