Aturning fork produces a feeble sound. but when it is pressed against a table, a loud sound is heard. why?

loudness of a sound varies with area of a vibrating body.

Explanation:

when a tuning fork is pressed against a rubber pad a feeble sound is heard because of the smaller area of pad but when a vibrating tuning fork is placed vertically on the table the surface area increases and so the loudness of a sound increases.

hi there!

out of the two, (b) precision would be more reasonable.   however, both a and b could be pretty reasonable.

-awesomerepublic   : )