Science Smarts: Music to my ears

By Patty Rooks on August 23, 2025.

I have been working on the Alberta Education Science Curriculum these past few weeks in preparation for the upcoming school year. It has been extensive work, but I am also allowing a bit of experimenting to keep all my resources hands on and exciting for all the classrooms in southeastern Alberta. I thought I would share one of my activities with you here. Let’s get started!

*Remember to ask an adult before doing this experiment.

Materials

– Eight glass bottles

– Water

– Spoon

– Sturdy work surface (table)

– Food colouring (optional)

Procedure

1. Fill one bottle full of water (I like to add food colouring to it to make it look nice!). Place on the counter.

2. Place a second bottle beside it.

3. Gently tap the first bottle with the spoon.

4. What do you hear?

5. Tap the second bottle with the spoon? What do you hear?

6. Repeat with as many bottles as you wish and filing them with various amounts of water.

7. Try to make a simple song with your bottles such as “Mary Had a Little Lamb.”

What is going on?

In this experiment you are investigating the Science of Sound through vibrations. When you hit the bottle with the spoon, the glass vibrates, and these are the vibrations your ear is able to hear.

An empty bottle will produce a higher pitch than the bottle completely full of water. If you listen very carefully, you will be able to hear the different pitches. For instance, the less water in the bottle, the higher the pitch because the glass vibrates faster. When you add more water to the bottle, it dampens the vibrations.

You can use as many bottle as you want but I chose eight as then you can create enough notes for a musical scale – how many you use is entirely up to you. When you vary the amounts of water in each of the bottles, you are creating a musical scale.

Mark your calendars for the praxis AGM on Wednesday, Sept. 17 at 7 p.m. We are always looking for new board members that want to share their love of science. Contact Praxis for further details.

Patty Rooks, senior scientific consultant Praxis Science Outreach Society. Praxis has moved! We are very fortunate to be located in the Community Futures Entre Corp Building at #202 556 Fourth St. SE, Medicine Hat, Alberta, T1A 0K8. For all your science needs, please email praxis@praxismh.ca.

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