Lab Experiments 136

KamalJeeth Instrumentation and Service Unit

Experiment-367 F

VERIFICATION OF THE LAWS OF

VIBRATION
OF STRETCHED STRINGS
Jeethendra Kumar P K, Ajeya PadmaJeeth and Santhosh K
KamalJeeth Instrumentation & Service Unit, No-610, Tata Nagar, Bengaluru-560092. INDIA.
Email: labexperiments@rediffmail.com

Abstract
Using a new type of metal sonometer, speaker vibrator and power oscillator, the
three laws concerning vibration of stretched strings are verified. This sonometer
is easier to handle compared the available sonometers and moreover the
vibrations produced are of high amplitude which are normally not observed in
case of other sonometers conventionally used in physics laboratories.

Introduction
Marin Mersenne, a French scientist first published correct theoretical equations and
formulated laws of vibration of stretched strings in 1636. He studied the vibrations of musical
tones by using brass-ball weights attached to brass wires, adjusting the tension with
appropriate weight attached to the wires [1].

Mersenne observed that the frequency of oscillation is inversely proportional to vibrating

length of the string, directly proportional to the square root of tension and inversely
proportional to the square root of mass of the string. Based on these observations, he
formulated an equation describing vibration of stretched string as

 

=   …1

where ϑ is frequency of vibration,

T is the tension (force) on the string,
m is the unit mass of the string, and
L is the vibrating length of the string.

The tension T is applied by tying a weight (W) at the free end of the string.

T = Wg …2
where W is weight tied to the string, and
g is acceleration due to gravity.

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Based on Equation-1, Mersenne formulated three laws of stretched string vibration as

a) Law of velocity,
b) Law of tension, and
c) Law of mass

These three laws were formulated as a result of his earlier observations on vibration of
stretched strings. When the tension and mass per unit length are constant, the frequency is
proportional to 1/L.

ϑ α  , or ϑL is constant.

This is known as the law of Velocity. The constant appearing in this equation is the velocity
of the sound through the wire which remains constant under this condition. Therefore, a
graph of 1/L versus
is a straight line, with slope given by

Slope velocity = V = ϑλ

where V is the velocity, and

λ is the wavelength.

From Equation-1


ϑL =  gives the velocity, V, as


V=  and …3

L=λ …4

Keeping ‘m’ and ′ϑ′, constant, Equation-1 can be rewritten as

√ 
ϑ= or
√ 

  
= ...5
√ √ 

Equation-5 represents a straight line, with slope given by


Slope mass = …6
√

This is the law of Mass

Keeping
and T constant, one obtains the law of tension for a stretched string as

ϑ√m =√T …7


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Equatuion-7 represents a straight line with slope given by

Slope Tension = √T …8

This is the law of Tension.

Therefore, one can summarize the three laws concerning vibration of stretched string, as
given in Table-1.

Table-1
Law of Held constant Proved constant Straight line Slope
υL=V 1
versus ϑ
Velocity m, T V
#
Mass m, ϑ υ/√T =
 
versus υ/√T 1
√ 
√m
Tension ϑ, T υ√m = √T 
versus
√m √T


The three laws of vibration of stretched strings

Stretched string vibrators

A thread or a wire stretched fully with a weight hanging on its end is called a stretched string.
Such a string can be made to vibrate with external excitation. One can make the string vibrate
with different types of vibrators. A tuning fork is the simplest type of exciter. The sound
produced by the tuning fork travels through the string with the velocity which is governed
by (i) the weight of the string, (ii) tension in the string, and (iii) frequency of the exciter . An
AC current when passed through a copper wire held as a stretched string and pair of magnets
placed on both the sides produce vibration in the string. An electromagnet placed above the
stretched string can also produce vibration.

If the wavelength of the exciter frequency matches with the length of the wire, vibrations can
be seen as wave motion on the string. Based on this principle, some of the vibrators generally
used in Physics labs are: Melde’s tuning fork, electrical vibrator, and a set of tuning forks.

In this experiment, a speaker vibrator is introduced which is much superior to the available
vibrators because it can produce oscillations with large amplitude.

The new metal Sonometer

Sonometer [2] is an instrument generally used to verify the three laws of Mersenne, in which
the sound box is designed using a wooden board. Sonometers made of teak wood are
excellent but are not available now due to their high cost. Due to poor quality of wood used
for making sonometers, they usually get damaged during transit and/or storage. Further, their
long size (1m) adds to the possibility of their damage. Hence we have replaced wood with
metal box of small size; the maximum size being 60cm. Smaller length together with lower
weights and thin wire make them more suitable for frequencies between 30-130 Hz. In
general, in the sonometer experiments a tuning fork or an electromagnet is used as the
exciter. In this experiment we have used a tweeter (speaker) as the exciter.
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Tweeter vibrator

Figure-1: Tweeter vibrator

A three inch (7.5 cm) tweeter is selected for this application with 16 Ω dc resistance. The cap
of the voice coil is reshaped. A light weight, 15mm long aluminum tube with 10mm dia is
glued to the voice coil cap. A rubber rod is fixed on the aluminum tube. An aluminum strip,
10mm wide 1mm thick and 10cm long is fixed such that it remains in contact with the rubber
rod, as shown in Figure-1. This picks up the vibrations from the voice coil and starts
vibrating. A cotton thread or metal wire is tied to the aluminum plate which passes over a
pulley and two bridges that are used to adjust the vibrating length of the string.

Figure-2: The new sonometer with vibrator

The entire unit is fitted to one end of the sonometer as shown in Figure-2. A power oscillator
with variable frequency is provided along with the instrument which can be connected to the
speaker. The power oscillator generates sinusoidal waveform; with frequency varying from
50Hz to 130Hz. Figure-3 shows the power oscillator.

Figure-3: Variable frequency power oscillator

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B

Amplitude

Input sine wave

B

E C A Equilibrium pos ition 0 T/4 T/2 3T/4 T

Time
A C E

Voice coil movement D

Figure-4: Vibrations of the voice coil (left) and the input sine wave (right)

A sine wave of period T drives the speaker; the voice coil of the tweeter moves up and down
as shown in Figure-4. When T=0, the voice coil is at its equilibrium position A. When the
time is T/4, the voice coil moves to the upper position B; when time is T/2, the voice coil
comes to the equilibrium position; when time is 3T/4 the voice coil is at the position D; and
when the time is T the voice coil comes back to its equilibrium position. Hence during the
period T, the voice coil completes one oscillation and, therefore, the period of the voice coil
is the same as that of the sine wave.
B

A,C,E Loop on string

Metal strip

D
Speaker

Figure-5: Vibration of the string

A string or thread tied to the vibrator will oscillate, as shown in Figure-5. There will be a
loop with the maximum amplitude when the wavelengths of the vibrating string match with
the input frequency in which case the vibrating length of the string is given by

L= λ …9

where L is length of the loop vibrating with the maximum amplitude, and
λ is the wavelength of the input signal driving the speaker

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Hence if we determine the length of loop with the maximum amplitude, the velocity of the
sound travelling on the string can be determined and the three laws of vibration of stretched
strings can be verified experimentally [2].

Apparatus used
Sonometer fitted with tweeter vibrator, power oscillator 50-130Hz variable frequency, slotted
weights 5 numbers each of 20gm, and wires of iron (0.3mm dia), cotton thread, twin thread,
nylon thread, and digital scale to weigh up to 300gm. The complete experimental set-up is
shown in Figure-2.

Experimental procedure

The experiment consists of three parts, namely

Part-A: Law of Velocity

Part-B: Law of Tension
Part-C: Law of Mass

Part-A: Law of Velocity

In this part of the experiment, m and T are held constant throughout the experiment,
frequency of vibration is varied and the corresponding vibration length is determined.

1. The twin thread (green color) is selected for this part of the experiment. Thread of
exactly one meter length is taken and its mass (M) is determined using the digital
balance.

Length (l) = 1m
Mass (M) = 1.62 gm = 1.62x10-3 kg
$ .&'()*+
Mass per unit length (m) = %
= 
= 1.622.1001 kg/m

2. One end of the thread is tied to the tweeter vibrator and the other end is passed over
the pulley and tied to a 3x20gm (W) slotted weight hanger. Hence the tension in the
string

T = Wg = 0.060 x 9.8 = 0.588 N

3. The power oscillator is now connected to the tweeter vibrator and the frequency is set
to 130Hz.

υ = 130Hz

4. The two bridges are brought to the center, taken apart very slowly and vibration of the
string is observed. The distance between the strings is adjusted such that the string
vibrates with the maximum amplitude with the single loop as shown in Figure-6. The
length of the vibrating loop is noted from the graduated scale provided on the
sonometer.

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Figure-6: String vibration with the maximum amplitude

Length (L) = λ = 14.4cm = 0.144m

V = λυ = 0.144x130 =18.72 m/s

This value can be verified using Equation-3.

).233
= .&''()*+ = 19.05m/s
T
V=
m
The values obtained are tabulated in Table-2.
Table-2
Weight Velocity Frequency υ Vibrating Velocity
4
 (m/s)
W (kg) (Hz) length L=λ V=υλ
5 (m) (m/s )
0.060 19.05 130 0.144 18.72
110 0.163 17.93
90 0.198 17.82
76 0.238 18.10
70 0.261 18.27
62 0.290 17.98
50 0.364 18.20
Average (V) 18.15
Verification of the Law of Velocity
5. The experiment is repeated by varying the frequency to 110Hz, 90Hz etc. up to 50Hz.
For each length of the vibrating loop, the maximum amplitude is determined and
presented in Table-2.

6. A graph is drawn taking 1/L along the X-axis and frequency (υ) along the Y-axis, as
shown in Figure-7. From the straight line graph, the slope is calculated which gives
the velocity of the sound wave in the string.

Slope velocity =18.85m/s. This agrees with the value obtained using equation-3

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140

120

Frequency υ (Hz)
100

80

60

40

20

0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
1/L (m-1)

Figure-7: Frequency variation with 1/L

Part-B: Law of Tension

In this part of the experiment, m and
are kept constant throughout the experiment. The
vibrating length is determined for different values of tension in the string.

7. The same thread is used in this part of the experiment.

8. Frequency
is set to 90Hz.

9. The 20 gram slotted weight hanger is tied to the thread and the vibrating length is
determined

υ = 90Hz m=1.62x10-3
L= λ = 12.3cm = 0.123m

10. The experiment is repeated by increasing the weight to 40, 60, 80 and 100 gm and for
each case the vibrating length is determined and tabulated in Table-3.

Table-3
Weight (gm) Tension T (N) √T υ/√T L(m) 1/L
20 0.196 0.443 203.1 0.123 8.13
40 0.392 0.626 143.7 0.170 5.88
60 0.588 0.767 117.3 0.201 4.97
80 0.784 0.885 101.7 0.230 4.35
100 0.980 0.989 91.0 0.255 3.92
Vibrating length versus tension in the string

11. A graph showing the variation of υ/√T versus 1/L is drawn as shown in Figure-8. The
slope of the straight line is determined.

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250

200

150

ν/√T 100

50

0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
1/L

Figure-8: Law of Tension


Slope tension = 25 =
√

√m= 0.04

m = 1.6 x 10-3 kg/m

This value is in good agreement (1.62x10-3) with the value chosen for the experiment.

Part-C: Law of Mass

In this part of the experiment, the thread is changed, keeping the tension and frequency
constant. Five different threads, of 1 meter length each, (three of cotton, one of copper and
one of nylon) are provided with the sonometer. The mass per unit length of each one of the
wires is determined by measuring its weight.

12. A 40 gram weight is tied to the end of the string and the frequency υ is kept constant

υ =110Hz

13. The vibrating length of the string is determined

L=λ=14.0cm = 0.14m

Table-4
m (kg/m) x10-3 √5 6 √5 Vibrating length L (m) 1/L
1.62 0.04 4.40 0.14 7.14
0.91 0.03 3.30 0.192 5.2
0.65 0.025 2.75 0.217 4.6
0.38 0.019 2.09 0.285 3.5
0.28 0.014 1.54 0.384 2.6
Variation of the vibrating length with tension in the string

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5
4.5
4
3.5
3

ν√m
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
1/L

Figure-9: Variation of 6√5 with 1/L

14. The experiment is repeated by changing the thread, keeping the same tension and
frequency. The readings obtained are tabulated in Table-4.

15. A graph showing the variation of 1/L with
√m is drawn as shown in Figure-9 and its
slope is calculated

Slope mass = 0.625 = √7

T= 0.390
Actual T = Wg = 0.04 x 9.8= 0.392
The value agrees with the chosen value.

Results

In this experiment, Mersenne’s laws of vibration of stretched strings are verified. In each
case the constants appearing in the equations are determined and found to agree well with the
corresponding theoretical value. The results obtained are tabulated in Table-5

Table-5
Law Expt. (Slope) Thet. Inference
Velocity V= 18.85 m/s  Velocity remains constant
 =19.05 m/s

Tension m =1.6X10-3Kg/m 8 Mass per unit length remains
9
=1.62x10-3
constant
Mass T = 0.390 Wg = 0.392 Tension remains constant
Experimental results

References

[1] http://www.justonic.com/mersenne.html

[2] Jeethendra Kumar P K, Stretched string vibrator, LE Vol-4, No-4, Dec.-2004, Page-
303.

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