The Rubens' Tube: Soundwaves in Fire!

Step 4: Nerdy stuff - measuring sound.

The speed of sound is roughly 340 meters per second at sea level, but this is when air is the medium through which the sound waves travel. But because propane is of a different density than air, the velocity of sound is also different, and like all gases, the density changes with heat or pressure changes. For our purposes, we can work with the a velocity of 257 meters per  second.

As mentioned in the last step, sound is a vibration, we measure the frequency of this vibration in hertz (Hz), which is the number of cycles of the vibration per second. Wikipedia tells us that "The frequency (f )is equal to the speed (v) of the wave divided by the wavelength (lambda) of the wave".

So in other words - frequency = speed / wavelength or:
f = v / lambda

To find the wavelength, we use basic algebra - multiply by lambda and divide by f to get.
lambda = v / f

To test this we can take the sound wave used to demonstrate the device in the video as an example (360Hz), and use or rough speed of sound for v.

lambda = 257(m/s) / 360Hz
This gives us a value for lambda of about 0.71 meters. Which should be close to the distance between the peaks of the flames. Though the actual measured value may differ from what is calculated given the above mentioned scenarios.

Note - for some reason the lambda symbol keeps turning into this when I save "�»". So I've replaced the symbol with the word "lambda". I apologize for any confusion.


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Special thanks to user cposparks, who found an error on this page when it was originally published, I've since made best efforts to correct it.
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Comments

[sulphur6764]

to pennyroyal69 , i think the problem is with the size of the holes in your ruben's tube !! Not the size ! You see larger holes mean lower pressur and the fire gets into the tube but make the holes smaller and te length of the flames will increase. Hope it workes :-)

[shahrukh shajahan]

is it possible to do this rubens tube by using lpg...pls send me wetr it can b done by using lpg to my email id [e-mail]

[frollard]

Just remember, propane goes down (heavier than air) and it fills the tube first. This is important so you don't get a fuel-air mixture INSIDE the tube before you light it. It's the only reason it doesn't explode.

[Pennyroyal69]

my rubens tube doesnt light up on the top, but instead lights up inside the tube, and i have to turn off the propane supply immediately to stop the fire. do u know why that happens, and for how long should i allow the propane to build up inside the tube?

[yourtvlies]

Based on what frollard notes above, my guess would be that there's too much oxygen inside the tube. I may try the following: w/o the holes covered, allow the gas to run for a bit to push the O2 out of the tube, cover the holes to allow some pressure to build up, then uncover the holes and light the tube.

Timings will vary based on the volume of the tube and the gas output, and this is a potentially dangerous situation. Without knowing more specifics of your construction, I hesitate to say give the above a shot. But again, that's where I'd likely start to troubleshoot the issue. Please take every precaution possible.

[Pennyroyal69]

The rubens tube in question is a 5 foot PVC tube, 2.5 inch in diameter, with 3/32 inch holes half an inch apart starting one foot from the beginning of the tube and ending one foot from the end of the tube. Instead of attaching the other end of he tube directly to a speaker, i taped a diaphragm onto it. The gas enters the tube through two tubes each drilled into the tube at the non-diaphragm end of the tube, placed on each side of the tube.

So far i have taped the holes and then allowed the propane to build up for two min then four min. At two min, the propane lit up inside the tube, but at four min, i did have flames on the top, but they were very small, and i had to ignite every hole individually. i havent tried allowing the propane to push out of the tube yet, as i ignite it as soon as i pull of the tape.

[frollard]

You need to cover most of the holes and fill the gas VERY slowly so it fills and displaces the lighter air -- as soon as you smell gas coming out you should be good. You never need to 'build up pressure' inside the tube. covering all the holes will just result in a fuel-air mixture and stressing the diaphragm. Imagine if you will that you have a tube filled with oil and you want to displace it with water...go slowly and all the oil should be pushed out before any water hits the holes -- same buoyancy/stratification effect here, just with different fluids.

Again, turn on gas long enough to displace air, so that only gas is coming out of the holes. Don't hurry the priming process because it will cause turbulence in the tube and that will MIX the fuel and air, a VERY dangerous combination. (read: explosive)

You describe the fuel entry as 'far from the diaphragm. It should be as evenly spaced as possible to make the gas input equal across the tube.

[cposparks]

Were your experimental measurements similar to your theoretical measurements? I ask this because the speed of sound is 340 m/s in air but the sound waves are being created in a medium that is composed of propane. The speed of sound in propane is ~247 m/s. This would significantly change the theoretical wavelength for an arbitrary frequency.

[yourtvlies]

I recall things being pretty close -- though now that you mention it, considering the peaks and troughs are fairly subtle, particularly at the longer wavelengths where the discrepancies would be more noticeable, I very well may have been off in my measurements. There's also the possibility of an air/propane mixture in the tube, which would put the density of the medium somewhere between propane and air.

It's been three years (to the day!) since this Instructable was published, and unfortunately, I no longer have the device, so am unable to go back and check for confirmation, one way or the other. However, your observation's very astute, and I've started to do some research on the issue, though have found conflicting reports. As soon as I've got things figured out one way or another, I'll update the Instructable to reflect that - though until then I'll put a disclaimer on the top of this page.