PHY 1611 Standing Waves Lab Online|all you need

Standing Waves Lab Online Purpose The purpose of this activity is to examine the relationships between the tension in a sting, the length density of the string, the length of the string, and the standing waves that can form on the string. Theory A standing wave is a wave where the overall pattern does not appear to move. For standing wave to form on a string, the basic condition that must be met is that both ends of the string must be fixed in place, never moving themselves. This means that for a string stretched out horizontally, the vertical displacement of each of the two ends of the string must always be zero! In a standing wave, the locations of the string that never move are called nodes, while the locations on the string where the vertical displacement will reach its greatest value are called antinodes. Using the condition that there must be a node located at each end of the string for a standing wave to form on it, let us construct a relationship between the length of the string and the size of the waves that can form standing waves on that string. Let the length of the string be L , then the largest wavelength that will allow for our condition to be met is a wave that is twice as long as the string itself, λ=2L which will result in a standing wave with 1 loop to form on the sting. The speed of a wave v is given by the product of its wavelength λ , and its frequency f . v=λf Inserting 2L in for the wavelength, and then solving for the frequency gives. f 1= v 2 L This equation gives us the fundamental frequency, or the first frequency that will cause a standing wave to form on the string. This frequency is also called the first harmonic. 1 Now let us repeat this process to find the second largest wavelength that will form a standing wave on the string of length L. The second largest wave