Holographic study of a vibrating bell: An undergraduate laboratory experiment

An experiment combining holography and musical acoustics is described. Structures of vibration modes of a bell are visualized by time-average holography under either acoustical or mechanical excitation. The vibration amplitude as measured by an accelerometer shows very good quantitative agreement with that determined from our holograms by fringe counting. An effect of degenerate level separation is shown in the mechanical case. It is argued that this experiment is not only very inexpensive for a physics laboratory already equipped for holography, but that it also strongly stimulates students to deepen their insight into a variety of different topics in applied physics.