Sound is a Pressure Wave
Sound is a mechanical wave that results from the back and forth vibration of the particles of the medium through which the sound wave is moving. If a sound wave is moving…
Sound as a Longitudinal Wave
In the first part of Lesson 1, it was mentioned that sound is a mechanical wave that is created by a vibrating object. The vibrations of the object set particles…
Sound Waves and Music
The Nature of a Sound Wave Sound is a Mechanical Wave Sound and music are parts of our everyday sensory experience. Just as humans have eyes for the detection of…
Mathematics of Standing Waves
As discussed in Lesson 4, standing wave patterns are wave patterns produced in a medium when two waves of identical frequencies interfere in such a manner to produce points along the medium…
Harmonics and Patterns
As mentioned earlier in Lesson 4, standing wave patterns are wave patterns produced in a medium when two waves of identical frequencies interfere in such a manner to produce points along the…
Nodes and Anti-nodes
As mentioned earlier in Lesson 4, a standing wave pattern is an interference phenomenon. It is formed as the result of the perfectly timed interference of two waves passing through the…
Formation of Standing Waves
A standing wave pattern is a vibrational pattern created within a medium when the vibrational frequency of the source causes reflected waves from one end of the medium to interfere with incident waves from…
Standing Waves
Traveling Waves vs. Standing Waves A mechanical wave is a disturbance that is created by a vibrating object and subsequently travels through a medium from one location to another, transporting…
The Doppler Effect
Suppose that there is a happy bug in the center of a circular water puddle. The bug is periodically shaking its legs in order to produce disturbances that travel through the water. If…
Interference of Waves
What happens when two waves meet while they travel through the same medium? What effect will the meeting of the waves have upon the appearance of the medium? Will the…
