Cornstarch Subwoofer!
Avalanche, Fri Aug 04 2006, 01:19PMI was searching through the spare room earlier, and found my old subwoofers. It reminded me of the cornstarch speakers posted here a while ago, and I wondered what would happen if I scaled it up a tad? Despite the fact that there's loads of more important things I should be doing, I decided to give it a try anyway with one of these subwoofers
I hooked one up to my Kenwood amp, and ran Adobe Audition to generate some nice low frequency sine waves. Mixed up the cornstarch and added a bit of green ink to err.. make it a bit less freaky, and then I found the most interesting effects to be 4-8Hz, and even a tiny shift in frequency (.5Hz) changed the appearence. When the frequency got just too high (about 8Hz) I got what I call the 'alternating tongue' which just turned into a mess if I increased the amplitude any further. Anyway, with the nice effects at 5-7Hz, I decided to run some music through it at the same time, observing the waveform of the music on the peaks of the low frequency. It got quite entertaining!!
5Hz:
Video Stills (6Hz)
Videos (WMV)
- Music 3 - Drum n Bass + 5Hz (1.55Mb) < "it's heavy stuff"
The second music video is probably the best, by the time I did the other videos the stuff had dried out too much and I had to crank the volume to get it to move again. I decided to stop when the burning smell got too bad, and my amplifier was almost too hot to touch. I rinsed the sub off under the tap, not sure if it's still ok or not. About half a pint of cornstarch did load it down a bit
Re: Cornstarch Subwoofer!
ragnar, Fri Aug 04 2006, 01:27PM
Great stuff Avalanche! I think this is starting a trend =-D
How did you line the woofer?
ragnar, Fri Aug 04 2006, 01:27PM
Great stuff Avalanche! I think this is starting a trend =-D
How did you line the woofer?
Re: Cornstarch Subwoofer!
Avalanche, Fri Aug 04 2006, 01:33PM
I just used it without any lining, the diaphram is plastic - made out of 2 parts (so I just hoped it wouldn't leak )
It seems ok now it has dried, I think it survived!
Avalanche, Fri Aug 04 2006, 01:33PM
I just used it without any lining, the diaphram is plastic - made out of 2 parts (so I just hoped it wouldn't leak
)It seems ok now it has dried, I think it survived!
Re: Cornstarch Subwoofer!
Tesladownunder, Fri Aug 04 2006, 04:31PM
The photos and videos look great but I really think you are demonstrating resonance in a pool of fluid and not the same rate dependent viscosity that causes fingers to develop and grow as in the previous thread. The spooky cornstarch effects seem best at 50Hz and develop slowly.
Sorry I haven't put a video on to demonstrate the effect but my only loudspeaker available was the 4 inch one with half the surround decayed away.
Why don't you let it thicken up and try 50 Hz. It should be of the consistency that it will pour in a slow stream, but you can hit it with a spoon without splash.
Peter
Tesladownunder, Fri Aug 04 2006, 04:31PM
The photos and videos look great but I really think you are demonstrating resonance in a pool of fluid and not the same rate dependent viscosity that causes fingers to develop and grow as in the previous thread. The spooky cornstarch effects seem best at 50Hz and develop slowly.
Sorry I haven't put a video on to demonstrate the effect but my only loudspeaker available was the 4 inch one with half the surround decayed away.
Why don't you let it thicken up and try 50 Hz. It should be of the consistency that it will pour in a slow stream, but you can hit it with a spoon without splash.
Peter
Re: Cornstarch Subwoofer!
Steve Conner, Fri Aug 04 2006, 05:16PM
Just think, if you listen to drum'n'bass loud on headphones, that same thing could happen to your brain!
Steve Conner, Fri Aug 04 2006, 05:16PM
Just think, if you listen to drum'n'bass loud on headphones, that same thing could happen to your brain!
Re: Cornstarch Subwoofer!
Avalanche, Fri Aug 04 2006, 05:22PM
thanks for the input, yeah I must admit I did wonder about that, and thought about trying it with water at one point. The whole thing seemed to settle down and resonate at about 2.5 Hz, or half the frequency I was driving it at.
I guess I'll have to get the subwoofer out again and terrorize the neighbours or probably best wait until mid-week next week when they are at work (it's loud).
Another thing to try with the cornstarch - I got this idea from an open day at my old school. Pour some into a small pot, make sure it's about 2" deep then put your finger into it. When you pull out your finger, it feels like you've left it behind
Avalanche, Fri Aug 04 2006, 05:22PM
thanks for the input, yeah I must admit I did wonder about that, and thought about trying it with water at one point. The whole thing seemed to settle down and resonate at about 2.5 Hz, or half the frequency I was driving it at.
I guess I'll have to get the subwoofer out again and terrorize the neighbours
or probably best wait until mid-week next week when they are at work (it's loud). wrote ...
Just think, if you listen to drum'n'bass loud on headphones, that same thing could happen to your brain!
that's a scary thought, but enough amplitude and it would be true Just think, if you listen to drum'n'bass loud on headphones, that same thing could happen to your brain!
Another thing to try with the cornstarch - I got this idea from an open day at my old school. Pour some into a small pot, make sure it's about 2" deep then put your finger into it. When you pull out your finger, it feels like you've left it behind
Print this page