Chapter 16 Waves I

Types of Waves

Mechanical Waves governed by Newtons laws and have a material medium,
water waves, sound waves etc

Electromagnetic waves require no medium to exist, all travel through a
vacuum at the same speed 3 x 10
8
ms
-1
. E.g. ultraviolet light, X rays, microwaves

Matter Waves associated with protons, electrons and other fundamental
particles

Transverse and Longitudinal Waves

Transverse mechanical waves like those on a stretched string are waves in which
particles of the medium oscillate perpendicular to the waves direction of travel.
Waves in which the particles of the medium oscillate parallel to the waves
direction of travel are longitudinal.

Sinusoidal Waves

A sinusoidal wave moving the positive direction of the x axis has the
mathematical form


Where ym is the amplitude, k is the angular wav number, is the angular
frequency, kx t is the phase. is related to k by








Equation of a Travelling Wave

Any function of the form

y(x, t) = h(kx t)

can represent a traveling wave with speed given by above equation. A plus sign
denotes the wave traveling in a negative direction to the x axis. Minus sign is in
the positive direction.




Wave Speed on Stretched String

Speed of wave on stretched string is set by properties of the string. Linear
density , with tension .



Power

The average power or the rate at which energy is transmitted by, a sinusoidal
wave on a stretched string is given by



Superposition

When two or more waves transverse on the same medium, the displacement of
any particle of the medium is the sum of the displacements that the individual
waves would give it.

Interference of Waves

Two sinusoidal waves on the same string exhibit interference, adding or
cancelling according to the principle of superposition. If the two are traveling in
the same direction and have same amplitude and frequency but differ in phase
constant this results in a single wave with the same frequency


If = 0 they are exactly in phase and their interference are fully constructive, if
= rad, they are exactly out of phase and their interference is fully destructive.

Phasors

A wave y(x, t) can be represented with a phasor. This is a vector that has the
magnitude of the amplitude of the wave and that rotates around an origin with
an angular speed equal to the angular frequency of the wave. The projection of
the rotating phasor on a vertical axis gives the displacement y of a point along
the waves travel.

Standing Waves

The interference of two indentical sinusoidal waves moving in opposite
direction produces standing waves. For a string with a fixed end.



Standing waves are characterized by fixed locations of zero displacements called
nodes and fixed locations for maximum displacement called anti nodes.

Resonance

Standing waves on a string can be set up by reflection of traveling waves from
the endings of the string. If a end is fixed it must be a position of a node. This
limits the frequencies at which standing waves will occur on a given string. Each
possible frequency is a resonant frequency and the corresponding standing wave
pattern is an oscillation mode. For a stretched string length L with fixed ends, the
resonant frequencies are



N = 1 is the fundamental mode or the first harmonic