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Standing Waves Lab

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This lab demonstrated qualities of standing waves with great help from a mechanical vibrator, a sine wave generator, and a piece of string. Through this lab we were able to understand how to calculate the speed of a wave on a string. A standing wave is defined as a wave that travels forward, then is reflected creating nodes (regions with minimal to zero energy).
If the frequency of a standing wave is increased then more loops will be created, and because of that the wavelengths will be decreased. Throughout this experiment, transverse waves are generated. We know this because of the perpendicular movement of the string that creates crests and troughs.
In this experiment we began by measuring the length and finding the mass of our string. Then, we tied the string to the wave driver and the pulled it over the pulley and attached a weight with a mass of 0.070 kg the then end of the string. Once we did that, we calculated our predictions for the frequencies of the various harmonics. After that we connected the wave driver to the sine wave generator and set the amplitude knob to the midway point. Then we searched for the correct frequency to find the first, second, and third harmonic. After we completed this, we tried the experiment two more times with 0.100 kg and 0.120 kg.
One of the main points of this experiment was …show more content…

After finding the speed we can predict what the smallest frequency is to create a standing wave. This is known as the first harmonic which is also known as the fundamental frequency. Throughout this experiment we place different weights on the end of the string, because of this different tensions are created and the speed is calculated differently. We do this in order to examine how the different tensions of the string can create different frequencies for

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