In: Physics
A 20.0 cm long organ pipe is filled with air and is open at one end and closed at the other. The velocity of sound in air at 0
When you're dealing with a pipe that has one end open and one
end closed, at fundamental frequency (ie. the lowest frequency
possible) there is only one half of a wavlength in the pipe.
(Here's a picture of a one-end-open, one-end-closed pipe to help
you visualize it http://www.saburchill.com/physics/chapte...
Since you know that your pipe is 20 cm, or 0.2 m long, and you also
know that it has 1/4 wavelengths in it, you know that one
wavelength is equal to 80 cm, or 0.8m.
Now, you can calculate frequency from wavelength using a constant
value for the speed of sound in air (c = 331 m/s). The equation
is
c = f*wavelength where f, frequency is in hertz and wavelength is
in metres
331m/s = (f)(0.8m), therefore, f =413.75 Hz
The second harmonic frequency occurs when there are 3/4 wavelengths
in the pipe so we know that wavelength is 0.93m. So, using the same
equation, c = f*wavelength, we find the second harmonic frequency
to be 366 Hz.
Just change both to have whatever number of significant figures you
need.