Question

If one of the prongs of a tuning fork gets broken, the vibrations
A. are maintained equally well
B. are maintained better
C. cannot be maintained
D. nothing can be decided.

Answer 1

We are given a tuning fork and it is asked that how the vibrations behave if one of the prongs gets broken. A tuning fork consists of two prongs and the vibrations in the tuning fork is due to the hitting of the prongs in a rubber pad or on any surface.

Complete answer:
A tuning fork consists of two prongs which are also known as tines. Those times when moving back and forth at tremendous speeds produce vibrations. When the tuning fork is hit on a rubber pad, the times or the prongs begin to vibrate. The vibrations are in the form of sound waves that are transmitted through the medium. The vibrations press the air molecules around it forming compressions and rarefactions.

The prongs of the tuning fork vibrate at an equal frequency which means there is zero phase difference between the sound waves produced by both the prongs. Now if one of the prongs gets broken then the tuning fork will continue to vibrate but the vibration would be less pure and would fade out more quickly. This means that the volume of the sound wave generated will be diminished. Volume is the measure of loudness.

Hence option C is the correct answer.

Note: Note that the change in volume of the sound waves due to the breakage of one of the prongs will not affect the frequency of the tuning fork because the frequency is inversely proportional to the square of the length of the prongs. If one prong gets broken then also the fork will have the same length as the other prong remains unaffected.