PHYS 2202 LAB: Physics II

Week 05
Transverse Mechanical Waves
by
[Insert Student’s Name]

Due Date:
Objective
The main objective of this lab is to study the relation between the velocity of
transverse waves in a cord and the load applied to the wire or cord as well as to
study and understand how tension being applied to a vibrating string affects the
wavelength of the string.
Equipment Used
 Electromagnetic vibrator
 Board
 Pulley
 Hooked weights
 Cord or wire
 Meter stick
 Scale
Introduction

Velocity of propagation of a transverse wave in a cord is v=

F
μ√. If the cord or wire is
fixed at both ends, any transverse waves in the system will be reflected back and
forth from the fixed end points. For resonant frequencies, the oppositely travelling
waves tend to interfere with each other in such a way as to produce standing waves
where the transverse motion of points on the wire causes the wire to appear to
vibrate as a whole. This vibration is characterized by points which remain fixed
where the oppositely travelling waves always cancel, and by points of maximum
amplitude where the waves always reinforce. The length of the resonant waves
2L
related to the length of the wire by λ= . The relation between frequency 𝑓, velocity
n
2 Lf
𝑣, and wave length 𝜆 is v=fλ or alternatively, v= .
n
Procedure
Measure out and weigh 10 meters of cord to, obtain 𝜇, the mass per unit length. Set
up the cord on the apparatus and measure the distance between the point of
connection with the reed and the point of tangency with the pulley. Load the cord
with various weights with the vibrator activated and observe the appearance of the
standing waves and record the length from the scale reading and regular position of
the reed from the mentioned image and video files in the lab manual. Load the
cord with weight sufficient to obtain standing waves from the first through the fifth
harmonic (𝑛=1,2,3,4,5) and record the load required to produce each harmonic in
tabular form. Calculate the velocities from v=
percentage error between them.
√
F
μ
and v=
2 Lf
n
measure the
 Data Analysis

# of loops Load mass Tension F Lstring Frequency f 2L Velocity %

n (kg) (N) (Hz) λ= difference
(m) n
(m)

v=√ F / μ v=fλ

1 1.49 14.6 1.102 120 2.204 253.05 264.48 4.52

2 0.372 3.6 1.102 120 1.102 125.66 132.24 5.24
3 0.166 1.63 1.102 120 0.735 84.55 88.2 4.32
4 0.093 0.91 1.102 120 0.551 63.18 66.12 4.65
5 0.059 0.58 1.102 120 0.441 50.44 52.92 4.92

1
F vs graph in eq (4) might help in finding an erroneous point in our dataset
n2
because we can find the results of additional tension on a wavelength.
Sources of error:
 Uncertainty in measurement of length of the cord
 Uncertainty in amount of weight added
Question:
Increasing the tension increases the wavelength since there is a direct relation
between them considering the formulas v=
F
μ √
and v=fλ .

Conclusion
This lab was done to study the relation between the velocity of transverse waves in a
cord and the load applied to the wire or cord as well as to study and understand how
tension being applied to a vibrating string affects the wavelength of the string. We
have completed all the parts of the lab and included all the results and error analysis
in the data section of the report. The formulas used in the lab were v=
√ F
μ
and v=fλ .
The lab is successfully done since the % error is only 4% between the computed
velocities from the two formulas.