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  5. Traveling waves

16.1 Traveling waves  (Page 4/14)

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Waves may be transverse, longitudinal, or a combination of the two. Examples of transverse waves are the waves on stringed instruments or surface waves on water, such as ripples moving on a pond. Sound waves in air and water are longitudinal. With sound waves, the disturbances are periodic variations in pressure that are transmitted in fluids. Fluids do not have appreciable shear strength, and for this reason, the sound waves in them are longitudinal waves. Sound in solids can have both longitudinal and transverse components, such as those in a seismic wave. Earthquakes generate seismic waves under Earth’s surface with both longitudinal and transverse components (called compressional or P-waves and shear or S-waves, respectively). The components of seismic waves have important individual characteristics—they propagate at different speeds, for example. Earthquakes also have surface waves that are similar to surface waves on water. Ocean waves also have both transverse and longitudinal components.

Wave on a string

A student takes a 30.00-m-long string and attaches one end to the wall in the physics lab. The student then holds the free end of the rope, keeping the tension constant in the rope. The student then begins to send waves down the string by moving the end of the string up and down with a frequency of 2.00 Hz. The maximum displacement of the end of the string is 20.00 cm. The first wave hits the lab wall 6.00 s after it was created. (a) What is the speed of the wave? (b) What is the period of the wave? (c) What is the wavelength of the wave?

Strategy

  1. The speed of the wave can be derived by dividing the distance traveled by the time.
  2. The period of the wave is the inverse of the frequency of the driving force.
  3. The wavelength can be found from the speed and the period v = λ / T .

Solution

  1. The first wave traveled 30.00 m in 6.00 s:
    v = 30.00 m 6.00 s = 5.00 m s .
  2. The period is equal to the inverse of the frequency:
    T = 1 f = 1 2.00 s −1 = 0.50 s .
  3. The wavelength is equal to the velocity times the period:
    λ = v T = 5.00 m s ( 0.50 s ) = 2.50 m .

Significance

The frequency of the wave produced by an oscillating driving force is equal to the frequency of the driving force.

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Check Your Understanding When a guitar string is plucked, the guitar string oscillates as a result of waves moving through the string. The vibrations of the string cause the air molecules to oscillate, forming sound waves. The frequency of the sound waves is equal to the frequency of the vibrating string. Is the wavelength of the sound wave always equal to the wavelength of the waves on the string?

The wavelength of the waves depends on the frequency and the velocity of the wave. The frequency of the sound wave is equal to the frequency of the wave on the string. The wavelengths of the sound waves and the waves on the string are equal only if the velocities of the waves are the same, which is not always the case. If the speed of the sound wave is different from the speed of the wave on the string, the wavelengths are different. This velocity of sound waves will be discussed in Sound .

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Source:  OpenStax, University physics volume 1. OpenStax CNX. Sep 19, 2016 Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col12031/1.5
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