Before you read this, I suggest you read posts 18.8 and 18.10; it might also help to read post 18.11. Let’s suppose a string or wire is fixed at A, is stretched tight by a force T (a tensile force, post 16.49) and is then clamped at B. This wire is shown in black. Now… Continue reading 18.12 Vibrating strings: violins, guitars and pianos

In post 17.12 we saw how motion in a circle can be described, although some ideas on this subject appeared earlier in post 16.14. We met the simple harmonic oscillator in post 18.6 but some of the equations used were derived more simply in post 18.7. Finally, in post 18.10, we looked at wave motion.… Continue reading 18.11 Motion in a circle, the simple harmonic oscillator and waves

If you are not familiar with measuring angles in radians, I suggest you read post 17.11 before this. The picture shows what happens when we drop a stone into a pond: the stone disturbs the water and waves spread out from the point of disturbance – the source of the waves. Eventually the waves will… Continue reading 18.10 Waves