Physics 427

Dr. Ayars

Standing Waves on a Hanging Chain

The speed of a wave along a chain depends on the tension and the mass density. A hanging chain of mass m supported at the top has a tension that varies from zero at the bottom to mg at the top. Nodes in standing waves in this chain are not evenly spaced because of this varying tension. In this experiment we oscillate the support of a chain of Christmas-tree beads and compare the resulting node spacing with the theoretical prediction.

This experiment was spotted by Dr. Ayars on a poster at the AAPT summer meeting in 2015. It has not yet been successfully done on this campus.

Reading

Questions

Equipment needed

Hazards

Mardi-Gras beads. Very dangerous.

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