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Plucking Standing Waves

Satisfactory Essays

In this picture, I am plucking a chord on a violin. This is an example of simple harmonics and waves. The chords on a violin, or any stringed instrument, act as strings that are fixed at both ends. The vibration on the string, which was caused by me plucking it, is known as a standing wave, meaning it has nodes at both ends. The nodes are clearly seen as places where the amplitude is always zero. The antinodes are where the amplitude varies from zero to the maximum value. The first harmonic, or fundamental frequency, is seen in the picture. A wavelength is characterized as node to node to node. Therefore, for the first harmonic, the wavelength, ʎ, is equal to 2L, L being the length of the string. Since standing waves follow the standard relationship

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