An introduction to standing waves

This is an interactive program to help teach about standing waves. A standing wave is where we have the superposition of two waves traveling in opposite directions. This has the effect that there are certain places that never change (nodes), as well as places that change the most (anti-nodes).

Here you are going to be able to control

on the standing wave.

The "number of nodes" information tells you the number of nodes that appear between or on the boundaries. For both the longitudinal wave and the transverse wave, the number of nodes always refers to the number of displacement nodes. Part of your job is to figure out the number of pressure nodes, where appropriate.

When you click on the screen, a yellow dot will appear. The yellow dot highlights a particular atom or molecule (called the medium). You may wish to talk in your groups about why the red dot from the last activity is not shown.

Important
In the previous activity, you were allowed to change the period and the wavelength independently. This is not true in a real wave. In this activity, the wave behaves more realistically. If you change the wavelength (by changing the number of displacement nodes) then the period automatically changes

Longitudinal Transverse


If the sliders only half appear, or you encounter problems try downloading the most recent version of the java runtime environment