Seed Question: What is a standing wave? Demo.

Exploration: You can think of standing waves as waves traveling back and forth, reflecting off the ends.

Sketch standing waves with fixed ends a distance L apart.

Standing Waves Lab

Take data on the five different standing waves to calculate their speeds. Use the expression you derived in the previous wave entry.

Data:

Length L(m)

Number of humps

Wavelength (m)

Cycles n Time t(s)

Frequency f(Hz)

speed v(m/s)

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What can you conclude about the speed of waves of different frequencies in the same medium?

Big Idea: