Periodic Motion

Weve already covered some of the basics of periodic motion with our discussion of a mass on a
spring back in Chapter 5. When the end of a spring is stretched or compressed, the spring exerts a
force so as to return the mass at its end to itsequilibrium position. The maximum displacement of
the mass from its equilibrium position during each cycle is the amplitude of the oscillation.
One cycle of periodic motion is completed each time the spring returns to its starting point, and the
time it takes to complete one cycle is the period, T, of oscillation. The frequency, f, of the springs
motion is the number of cycles it completes per second. A high frequency means each period is
relatively short, so frequency and period are inversely proportional:

Frequency is measured in units of hertz (Hz), where 1 Hz = 1 cycle/second. The unit of hertz is
technically defined as an inverse second (s
1
) and can be applied to any process that measures how
frequently a certain event recurs.
We can summarize all of these concepts in an equation describing the position of the mass at the end
of a spring, x, as a function of time, t:

In this equation, A is the amplitude, f is the frequency, and T is the period of the oscillation. It is
useful to think of each of these quantities in terms of a graph plotting the masss displacement over
time.

The graph shows us an object moving back and forth withina distance of 1 m from its equilibrium
position. It reaches its equilibrium position of x = 0 at t = 0, t = 2, and t = 4.
Note that one cycle is completed not at t = 2 but at t = 4. Though the object is at the same
position, x = 0, at t = 2 as it was at t = 0, it is moving in the opposite direction. At the beginning of a
new cycle, both the position and the velocity must be identical to the position and velocity at the
beginning of the previous cycle.




Wave Motion
Because both masses suspended on a spring and waves at the beach exhibit periodic motion, we can
use much of the same vocabulary and mathematical tools to describe both. However, there is a
significant difference: waves are extended in space, while a mass on a spring just oscillates back and
forth in one place.
The Basics
A familiar and concrete example of wave motion is the wave spectators create at sporting events by
standing up and sitting down at appropriate intervals. Each person stands up just as that persons
neighbor stands up, transmitting a form of energy all the way around the stadium. There are two
things worth noting about how this works:
1. Waves are transmitted through a medium: The energy and the wave are both created by the
successive action of people standing up and down. If there were no people in the stadium, no wave
could exist and no energy could be transmitted. We call the people at the stadium, the water at the
beach, the air molecules transmitting sound, etc., the medium through which these waves are
transmitted.
2. The medium itself is not propagated: For the wave to work, each person in the stadium only
needs to stand up and sit back down. The wave travels around the stadium, but the people do not.
Think of waves as a means of transmitting energy over a distance. One object can transmit energy to
another object without either object, or anything in between them, being permanently displaced. For
instance, if a friend shouts to you across a room, the sound of your friends voice is carried as a wave
of agitated air particles. However, no air particle has to travel the distance between your friend and
your ear for you to hear the shout. The air is a medium, and it serves to propagate sound energy
without itself having to move. Waves are so widespread and important because they transmit energy
through matter without permanently displacing the matter through which they move.
Crests, Troughs, and Wavelength
Waves travel in crests and troughs, although, for reasons we will discuss shortly, we call
them compressions and rarefactions when dealing with longitudinal waves. The
terms crest and trough are used in physics just as you would use them to refer to waves on the sea:
the crest of a wave is where the wave is at its maximum positive displacement from the equilibrium
position, and the trough is where it is at its maximum negative displacement. Therefore, the
displacement at the crest is the waves amplitude, while the displacement at the trough is the
negative amplitude. There is one crest and one trough in every cycle of a wave. The wavelength, ,
of a traveling wave is the distance between two successive crests or two successive troughs.

Wave Speed
The period of oscillation, T, is simply the time between the arrival of successive wave crests or wave
troughs at a given point. In one period, then, the crests or troughs travel exactly one wavelength.
Therefore, if we are given the period and wavelength, or the frequency and wavelength, of a
particular wave, we can calculate the wave speed, v:

EXAMPLE
Ernst attaches a stretched string to a mass that oscillates up and down once every half second, sending
waves out across the string. He notices that each time the mass reaches the maximum positive
displacement of its oscillation, the last wave crest has just reached a bead attached to the string 1.25 m
away. What are the frequency, wavelength, and speed of the waves?
DETERMINING FREQUENCY:
The oscillation of the mass on the spring determines the oscillation of the string, so the period and
frequency of the masss oscillation are the same as those of the string. The period of oscillation of the
string is T = 0.5 s, since the string oscillates up and down once every half second. The frequency is
just the reciprocal of the period: f =1/T = 2 Hz.
DETERMINING WAVELENGTH:
The maximum positive displacement of the masss oscillation signifies a wave crest. Since each crest
is 1.25 m apart, the wavelength, , is 1.25 m.
DETERMINING WAVE SPEED:
Given the frequency and the wavelength, we can also calculate the wave
speed: m/s.
Phase
Imagine placing a floating cork in the sea so that it bobs up and down in the waves. The up-and-
down oscillation of the cork is just like that of a mass suspended from a spring: it oscillates with a
particular frequency and amplitude.

Now imagine extending this experiment by placing a second cork in the water a small distance away
from the first cork. The corks would both oscillate with the same frequency and amplitude, but they
would have different phases: that is, they would each reach the highest points of their respective
motions at different times. If, however, you separated the two corks by an integer multiple of the
wavelengththat is, if the two corks arrived at their maximum and minimum displacements at the
same timethey would oscillate up and down in perfect synchrony. They would both have the same
frequency and the same phase.


Transverse Waves and Longitudinal Waves
There are two major kinds of waves: transverse waves and longitudinal waves. The medium
transmitting transverse waves oscillates in a direction perpendicular to the direction the wave is
traveling. A good example is waves on water: the water oscillates up and down while transmitting a
wave horizontally. Other common examples include a wave on a string and electromagnetic waves.
By contrast, the medium transmitting longitudinal waves oscillates in a direction parallel to the
direction the wave is traveling. The most commonly discussed form of longitudinal waves is sound.
Transverse Waves: Waves on a String
Imagineor better yet, go grab some twine and set upa length of string stretched between two
posts so that it is taut. Each point on the string is just like a mass on a spring: its equilibrium position
lies on the straight line between the two posts, and if it is plucked away from its resting position, the
string will exert a force to restore its equilibrium position, causing periodic oscillations. A string is
more complicated than a simple mass on a spring, however, since the oscillation of each point
influences nearby points along the string. Plucking a string at one end causes periodic vibrations that
eventually travel down the whole length of the string. Now imagine detaching one end of the string
from the pole and connecting it to a mass on a spring, which oscillates up and down, as in the figure
below. The oscillation at one end of the string creates waves that propagate, or travel, down the
length of the string. These are called, appropriately, traveling waves. Dont let this name confuse
you: the string itself only moves up and down, returning to its starting point once per cycle. The wave
travels, but the mediumthe string, in this caseonly oscillates up and down.

The speed of a wave depends on the medium through which it is traveling. For a stretched string, the
wave speed depends on the force of tension, , exerted by the pole on the string, and on the mass
density of the string, :

The formula for the wave speed is:

EXAMPLE

A string is tied to a pole at one end and 100 g mass at the other, and wound over a pulley. The strings
mass is 100 g, and it is 2.5 m long. If the string is plucked, at what speed do the waves travel along the
string? How could you make the waves travel faster? Assume the acceleration due to gravity is 10 m/s
2
.
Since the formula for the speed of a wave on a string is expressed in terms of the mass density of the
string, well need to calculate the mass density before we can calculate the wave speed.

The tension in the string is the force of gravity pulling down on the
weight, The equation for calculating the speed of a wave on a
string is:

This equation suggests two ways to increase the speed of the waves: increase the tension by hanging
a heavier mass from the end of the string, or replace the string with one that is less dense.
Longitudinal Waves: Sound
While waves on a string or in water are transverse, sound waves are longitudinal. The
term longitudinal means that the medium transmitting the wavesair, in the case of sound waves
oscillates back and forth, parallel to the direction in which the wave is moving. This back-and-forth
motion stands in contrast to the behavior of transverse waves, which oscillate up and down,
perpendicular to the direction in which the wave is moving.
Imagine a slinky. If you hold one end of the slinky in each of your outstretched arms and then jerk
one arm slightly toward the other, you will send a pulse across the slinky toward the other arm. This
pulse is transmitted by each coil of the slinky oscillating back and forth parallel to the direction of the
pulse.

When the string on a violin, the surface of a bell, or the paper cone in a stereo speaker oscillates
rapidly, it creates pulses of high air pressure, or compressions, with low pressure spaces in between,
called rarefactions. These compressions and rarefactions are the equivalent of crests and troughs in
transverse waves: the distance between two compressions or two rarefactions is a wavelength.
Pulses of high pressure propagate through the air much like the pulses of the slinky illustrated above,
and when they reach our ears we perceive them as sound. Air acts as the medium for sound waves,
just as string is the medium for waves of displacement on a string. The figure below is an
approximation of sound waves in a fluteeach dark area below indicates compression and
represents something in the order of 10
24
air molecules.

Loudness, Frequency, Wavelength, and Wave Speed
Many of the concepts describing waves are related to more familiar terms describing sound. For
example, the square of the amplitude of a sound wave is called itsloudness, or volume. Loudness is
usually measured in decibels. The decibel is a peculiar unit measured on a logarithmic scale. You
wont need to know how to calculate decibels, but it may be useful to know what they are.
The frequency of a sound wave is often called its pitch. Humans can hear sounds with frequencies as
low as about 90 Hz and up to about 15,000 Hz, but many animals can hear sounds with much higher
frequencies. The term wavelength remains the same for sound waves. Just as in a stretched string,
sound waves in air travel at a certain speed. This speed is around 343 m/s under normal
circumstances, but it varies with the temperature and pressure of the air. You dont need to
memorize this number: if a question involving the speed of sound comes up on the SAT II, that
quantity will be given to you.


Superposition
Suppose that two experimenters, holding opposite ends of a stretched string, each shake their end of
the string, sending wave crests toward each other. What will happen in the middle of the string,
where the two waves meet? Mathematically, you can calculate the displacement in the center by
simply adding up the displacements from each of the two waves. This is called the principle of
superposition: two or more waves in the same place are superimposed upon one another, meaning
that they are all added together. Because of superposition, the two experimenters can each send
traveling waves down the string, and each wave will arrive at the opposite end of the string
undistorted by the other. The principle of superposition tells us that waves cannot affect one another:
one wave cannot alter the direction, frequency, wavelength, or amplitude of another wave.
Destructive Interference
Suppose one of the experimenters yanks the string downward, while the other pulls up by exactly the
same amount. In this case, the total displacement when the pulses meet will be zero: this is
called destructive interference. Dont be fooled by the name, though: neither wave is destroyed
by this interference. After they pass by one another, they will continue just as they did before they
met.

Constructive Interference
On the other hand, if both experimenters send upward pulses down the string, the total displacement
when they meet will be a pulse thats twice as big. This is calledconstructive interference.

Beats
You may have noticed the phenomenon of interference when hearing two musical notes of slightly
different pitch played simultaneously. You will hear a sort of wa-wa-wa sound, which results from
repeated cycles of constructive interference, followed by destructive interference between the two
waves. Each wa sound is called a beat, and the number of beats per second is given by the
difference in frequency between the two interfering sound waves:


EXAMPLE
Modern orchestras generally tune their instruments so that the note A sounds at 440 Hz. If one
violinist is slightly out of tune, so that his A sounds at 438 Hz, what will be the time between the beats
perceived by someone sitting in the audience?
The frequency of the beats is given by the difference in frequency between the out-of-tune violinist
and the rest of the orchestra: Thus, there will be two beats per
second, and the period for each beat will be T = 1/f =0.5 s.