TA's Name:____________________ Section: ____ Your Name: _________________________________ Physics 214 Assignment 4

Concepts: Derivation of the wave equation Waves on strings Sound waves Standing waves Standing waves on strings Standing sound waves in pipes

Reading: AG Notes on Mechanical Waves (from website); Y&F, Vol. 1, Chapter 16 Assignment: Due in lecture on Tuesday, February 19. Please turn in this sheet stapled to the top of your work. Physics Problems: 1. Sound waves in a thin solid rod travel at a speed determined by Youngs modulus (the squishiness along the direction of the rod) rather than the bulk modulus. (Can you think why this might be?) Consider a sound wave traveling along the length of a thin solid rod of cross-sectional area A, Youngs modulus Y, and mass density (per unit volume) 0. Let x and x + x be the equilibrium positions of the ends of a short segment of the rod; s(x,t) and s(x + x, t) are the displacements of the ends of the short segment from their equilibrium positions. (a) What is the change in length of the segment when the ends are displaced? (b) Find the (tensile or compressive) force that must be applied to each end to produce this length change, using the definition of Youngs modulus: F/A = Y L/L0 (c) Take the limit x 0 to obtain a relationship between F(x,t) and s(x,t). (d) Write an expression for the net force on a segment of equilibrium length x. Then apply Newtons second law and take the limit x 0 to derive the wave equation and to find the wave speed in terms of Y and 0. 2. The D-string of a guitara string fixed at both ends has a fundamental frequency of 150 Hz. (Information given in square brackets may be interesting to those who know something about music or the guitar, but is not needed to work the problem.) (a) The oscillating length of a guitar string [between the nut and the saddle] is 25 inches. What is the wave speed on the D-string? (b What are the next two lowest standing wave frequencies on the D-string? (c) Suppose the string extends from x = 0 to x = L. If you press the string firmly against the neck at x = L/5 [at the 4th fret], only the side of the string with length 4L/5 can vibrate. Assume the tension is the same as before. What are the lowest three standing wave frequencies now? [The note youre playing is F#.] (d) If instead you touch a finger lightly to the string at x = L/5, the entire length L of string can vibrate but you force a node at the point x = L/5. What are the lowest three standing wave frequencies now? [This is how you play a natural or open-string harmonic. The note sounded is the F# two octaves higher than the F# in part (c).]

Physics 214, Spring 2008

Cornell University

3. Why all the wood? Why arent guitars (and cellos and violins) just boards with strings stretched from one end to the other? Try the following experiment. Take a bowl, and tightly stretch some plastic food wrap across the top. Take two identical rubber bands, and cut them to form two identical length rubber "strings". Take one of these and tape (or tie) one end to the center of the plastic wrap. Stretch the two bands to the same length, and pluck them by displacing them sideways by the same amount. How do (i) the loudness of the resulting sounds and (ii) the quality or texture (timbre is the official word) of the sounds compare? In both cases, the source of the sound - a vibrating string - is the same. What causes the difference in the sound you hear? Explain in a few sentences. 4. Try pouring liquid into a tall, narrow glass, and listen to the pitch of the sound produced as you pour. What is the ultimate source of the sound? (Hint: it's not the glass.) Do you expect the frequency of that source to change as you pour? If not, then why does the pitch of the sound you hear change? Explain in a few sentences. 5. A standing sound wave in a tube (B, 0, length L, cross-sectional area A) is described by s(x,t) = s0 cos(kx) cos(kvt) where v2 = B/. (Consider B, , s0, k, A, L, and x to be known quantities.) (a) Find the pressure variation p(x,t) corresponding to s(x,t) and show that pressure nodes are displacement antinodes and vice versa. (b) Since any small element of air moves in SHM, the net force on the element must be proportional to its displacement from equilibrium. Find the effective spring constant for the restoring force acting on a short element of length x where x << 1/k. (All the ks here refer to wavenumbers.) (c) A standing sound wave in air at 20C and 1 atm has a frequency of 1 kHz and a pressure amplitude of 3 105 Pa. (This value is called the threshold of hearingthe smallest pressure amplitude that a person with excellent hearing can hear.) What is the displacement amplitude? Compare it to the size of an atom (0.1 nm to 0.5 nm). 6. The lowest note on large pipe organs is C0, which has a frequency of 16.35 Hz, and the highest note is C9, which has a frequency of 8371 Hz. (a) For a pipe closed at one end, what must be the pipe lengths to play these two frequencies? If it is open at both ends? (b) In the commonly used equal tempered chromatic scale, the organ is tuned so that there are 12 notes per octave (e.g., between C0 and C1, and between C1 and C2 . . .) and each successive note on the keyboard has a frequency that is 21/12 times larger than the preceding note. Plot (e.g., using a spreadsheet program) the frequency of each note versus the note number between C0 and C9 on (i) a linear frequency scale and (ii) with a logarithmic frequency scale. Number the notes 1, 2, 3 ... starting with C0. (c) Notes that are separated by successive octaves (e.g., C0, C1, C2 . . .) sound to us to be equally spaced in pitch. From your answer to (b), what does this tell you about the relationship between (preceived) pitch and frequency? (c) Wander over to Sage Chapel and take a look at the pipes in the organ beneath the rose window. How do the pipe lengths vary (e.g., linearly?), and why?

Physics 214, Spring 2008

Cornell University