UNIVERSITI TUNKU ABDUL RAHMAN

CENTRE FOR FOUNDATION STUDIES:

FOUNDATION IN SCIENCE (STREAM-S)
Academic Year Y1S2 (201505)
Tutorial 1

FHSP1024 PHYSICS II

Wave and Sound I

Additonal Questions 1: Waves and Sound (Part 1)

1.

A rope of mass 0.65 kg is stretched between two supports 30 m apart. If the tension in
the rope is 120 N, how long will it take a pulse to travel from one support to the
other?
[Answer: t = 0.40 s]

2.

A gondola is connected to the top of a hill by a steel cable of length 600 m and
diameter 1.5 cm. As the gondola comes to the end of its run, it bumps into the side
and sends a wave pulse along the cable. It is observed that it took 16 s for the pulse to
return. (density of steel = 7847 kg/m3)
(a)
What is the speed of the pulse?
(b)
What is the tension in the cable?
[Answer: (a) v = 75 ms1; (b) F = 7.8103 N]

3.

A 440 Hz longitudinal wave in air has a speed of 345 m/s. What is the wavelength?
[Answer: = 0.784 m]

(2014 Oct Test 1 Q2)

4.
A guitar string is 90 cm long and has a mass of 3.8 g. It is attached between two stops
70 cm apart (the bridge and the nut as shown in the figure below).
(a) To what tension must the string be tightened to produce a fundamental
resonance frequency of 196 Hz?
(b) To produce frequencies at the next musical tone, a guitarist presses his finger
on one of the frets so as to produce a frequency of 247 Hz. What is the
distance between that fret and the nut?

5.

(a)
(b)

If a violin string vibrates at a fundamental frequency of 440 Hz, what are the
frequencies of the first four harmonics?
If two successive overtones of a vibrating string occur at 280 Hz and 350 Hz,
what is the frequency of the fundamental?
[Answer: (a) 440 Hz, 880 Hz, 1320 Hz, 1760 Hz; (b) 70 Hz]
1

(2014 Sep Q1)

6.
The strings on a violin are stretched with the same tension and each has the same
length between its two fixed ends. The musical notes and corresponding fundamental
frequencies of two of these strings are G (196 Hz) and E (660 Hz). The linear density
of the E string is 3.47 x 10-4 kg/m. Determine the linear density of the G string.
(2014 Sep Q3)
7.
A guitar string with mass 1.20 g is stretched between two fixed points 60.0 cm apart.
The string is observed to form a standing wave with three antinodes when driven at a
frequency of 420 Hz.
(a)
Find the linear density of the string.
(b)
Determine the frequency of the fifth harmonic.
(c)
Calculate the tension in the string.
(d)
A guitar player plucks a string to play a note. He then presses down on a fret to
make the string shorter. Will the new note played have a higher or lower pitch?
Explain.
(2014 April)
8.
A piano tuner stretches a 40.0 cm long steel piano wire with a tension of 800 N. The
steel wire has a mass of 3.00 g.
(a)
What is the frequency of its fundamental mode of vibration?
(b)
What is the number of its highest harmonic that could be heard by a person
who is capable of hearing frequencies only up to 10,000 Hz?
(2013 Sep Q1)
9.
A wire of length 50.0 cm and mass 12.0 g is stretched at both ends and it vibrates
transversely. Waves travel along the wire at the speed of 180 m/s. Three antinodes can
be found in the stationary waves found in between the two ends of the wire.
Determine
(a)
The wave length of the progressive waves which move along the wire.
(b)
The frequency of the vibration of the wire.
(c)
The tension in the wire.
(2014 Oct Test 1 Q1)
10.
A band was marching along the road on one side of West Lake in UTAR on one hot
afternoon (temperature 33 C). A student standing on the other side of the lake hears
the music played a second later.
(a) Determine the width of the lake.
(b) Calculate the wavelength of the sound waves if its frequency is 300 Hz.
11.

Two earthquake waves have the same frequency as they travel through the same
portion of the Earth, but one is carrying twice the energy. What is the ratio of the
amplitudes of the two waves?
[Answer: 1.41]

12.

If the amplitude of a sound is tripled,

(a)
by what factor will the intensity increase?
(b)
by how many dB will the sound level increase?

dB]

[Answer: (a) 9; (b) 9.5

UNIVERSITI TUNKU ABDUL RAHMAN

CENTRE FOR FOUNDATION STUDIES:
FOUNDATION IN SCIENCE (STREAM-S)
Academic Year Y1S2 (201505)
Tutorial 1

FHSP1024 PHYSICS II

Wave and Sound I

Answer Guidelines for Practice Exercise 1

1.

We find the speed of the wave from

t = L/v =

2.

(a)
(b)

m/ L

Because the pulse travels up and back, the speed is

v = 2L/t = 2(600 m)/(16 s) =
The linear density of the cable is
= m/L = AL/L = A.
F
F
v

75m / s F

3.

We find the wavelength from = v/f = (345 m/s)/(440 Hz) = 0.784 m.

4.

(a)

Speed of wave on string,

v=

Resonance frequency, f 1 =
Therefore, f 1 =

5.

v
2L

F
m
l

1 F
1
F
196=
0.9 F=318 N
2L
2 ( 0.70 ) 3.8 103

f
L
1 F
196
1 = 2 L 2=
0.70=0.555 m
2L
f 2 L1
247
Hence the distance between the fret and the nut = 0.70 0.555 = 0.145 m

(b)

Using, f 1 =

(a)

The frequencies of the harmonics of a string that is fixed at both ends are
given by f n nf1 , and so the first four harmonics are
f1 440Hz, f 2 880Hz, f 3 1320Hz, f 4 1760Hz .

(b)

6.

f1

Since fn nf1, two successive overtones differ by the fundamental frequency, as

shown below.
f fn1 fn n 1 f1 nf1 f1 350Hz 280Hz 70Hz
1
2L

F
1
f1'
and
2L

F
'

f1

'
Therefore, f1

196
3.47 10 4
'

3.93 10 3 kg/m

660

7.

(a)

(b)

1.20 10 3
0.600

2.00 10 3 kg/m
420
f1
140Hz
3
f 5 5 140 700Hz
v

(c)

T
and v f (140)(2 0.60) 168 m/s

T v 2 56.4 N
(d)

8.

(a)
(b)

9.

(a)

(b)
(i)

1 T
2 L , f is inversely proportional to L. Therefore, when L
Since
1
decreases, frequency and thus pitch increases.
f1

f1

1
800
408 Hz
2(0.40) 0.003 / 0.4

f n 408n 10000 n 24 ie. the 24th harmonic is the highest harmonic that
could be heard by the person concerned.
1
L 3
2
2
50.0 33.3cm
3
v
180
f
545Hz
0.333
m 0.0120

0.0240kg/m
L 0.500
v

T v 2 778N
10.

11.

(a)

Speed of sound at 33 C, v =331+ 0.6 T c =331+ 0.6 33=351 m/s

Width of lake, d=vt=351 (1.0 )=351 m

(b)

Wavelength of sound,

v 351
= =
=1.17 m
f 300

Because the speed, frequency, and medium are the same for the two waves, the
intensity depends on the amplitude only:
I A2
I2/I1 = (AM2/AM1)2
5

2 = (AM2/AM1)2 , which gives AM2/AM1 = 1.41.

12.

(a)

(b)

The intensity of the sound wave is given by

I = 22f2AM2v.
Because the frequency, density, and velocity are the same, for the ratio we
have
I2/I1 = (AM2/AM1)2 = 32 = 9.
We find the change in intensity level from
= 10 log10(I2/I1) = 10 log10(9) = 9.5 dB