Match Counting
Sathya | Ninad | Sriram
Problem statement: How accurately can you determine the
number of matchsticks in a matchbox from the sound it makes
when you shake it ? Can the same methods be applied to a
matchbox containing chewing gums ?
INTRODUCTION
This is a problem the 3 of us worked on as part of the SJU
IPT team 2023. We tried to apply various mathematical and
physical models to understand the system. We also came up
with experiments to test our models. In this document we
will summarize our findings.
THEORY
We have applied dimensional analysis to try and figure
out the parameters that affect the sound and how they relate
to the number of matchsticks inside the box. We expect a
bell shaped curve for the plot of number of sticks v/s sound
produced.
XN
S∝ pi × volair (1)
i=1
In the above equation pi refers to the air pressure difference
created when the walls of the matchstick vibrate and thereby
produce sound. This pressure difference is assumed PN to be
directly proportional to the number of matchsticks i=1 pi ≃
N po . volair represents the volume of air inside the match-
box, since sound needs a medium to travel the air enclosed
needs to be considered. Since the sound cannot increase
monotonically as a function of the number of matchsticks,
we expect a peak sound corresponding to a certain number of
matchsticks after which the sound will decrease(This is easy
enough to verify since with 100% air and no matchsticks
no sound is produced, similarly for 0% air). This special
’number’ of matchsticks will be a combination of both
pressure difference as well as volume and we expect a
Gaussian curve / bell distribution.
EXPERIMENT
A. Experimental Setup
The setup we came up with uses a scale to which we
have attached our matchbox. The extension of the scale is
measured and is standardized and can be varied according to
the experimenter, to a relatively high degree of accuracy. The
sound produced is recorded on a mic with a sampling rate of
96kH and a bit depth of 24 bits. All trials were done until the
sound dropped to a magnitude of -40 dB. Trials were taken
by increasing matchsticks by a step size of 4 sticks. 3 trials
were taken for each N and the average value was considered.
We have in addition performed experiments to determine if
the shape of the matchsticks themselves have any effect on
the sound produced. The experiments were then repeated for
filling up the matchbox with different matchsticks.
B. Experimental Results
The results from the experiments show a result similar
to the one which is expected, it is roughly a Gaussian
distribution and errors and deviation are due to the grouping
of matchsticks, sensitivity of apparatus and human error.
The data from the different types of matchsticks shows that
the peaks / amplitudes of the sounds depend on the type
of matchstick. The experiments with different matchsticks
confirmed that the sound is a parameter of only volume of
air left and independent of the shape of the matchsticks, as
is evident since they peak around the same volume of 40%.
Failed approaches
This is a brief description of the models and approaches
that have failed along the way(largely owing to lack of
knowledge) :
• Conservation of energy/momentum/....
• Mean free path / statistical mechanics
• Mathematical optimization
• Numerical methods and a pipe dream of Monte Carlo
methods
• Energy lost / Damping
• Machine learning models
• Fourier analysis
• Simple harmonic motion and probability amplitudes
• Error analysis
• Simulation
CONCLUSION
We have been able to verify that the parameters considered
i.e. net pressure and volume of air have some merit. The gen-
eral nature of the distribution is also verified experimentally.
We feel the solution to the problem is close and believe that
mathematical optimization is the key.
 R EFERENCES
[1] Michael Carley. Some notes on acoustics. Bath Uni-
versity. URL: https://people.bath.ac.uk/
ensmjc/Notes/acoustics.pdf.
[2] S. H. CRANDALL. THE ROLE OF DAMPING IN
VIBRATION THEORY. J. Sound Vib. URL: https://
internoise2018 . org / assets / documents /
5_Crandall.pdf.
[3] Multiple. Mathematical Optimization. Wikipedia. URL:
https : / / en . wikipedia . org / wiki /
Mathematical_optimization.