Oscillations and Waves

There are:

• 59 oscillations and waves demonstrations
• 45 of which have brief descriptions and diagrams
• 7 more have pictures and complete descriptions

Last update : 16 June 1998

Main topics:

• Oscillations
• Wave motion
• Acoustics
• Instruments

• Oscillations 3A
• Pendula 3A10
• Simple pendulum 3A10.10
• 4:1 pendulum 3A10.14
• Torsion pendulum 3A10.30
• Variable-g pendulum 3A10.40
• Physical pendula 3A15
• Physical pendulum 3A15.10
• Oscillating hoop 3A15.25
• Sweet spot 3A15.50
• Springs and oscillators 3A20
• Mass on a spring 3A20.10
• Springs in series and parallel 3A20.20
• Air track glider between springs 3A20.35
• Simple harmonic motion 3A40
• Circular motion vs. mass on a spring 3A40.10
• Circular motion vs. pendulum 3A40.20
• Arrow on the wheel 3A40.30
• Damped oscillators 3A50
• Eddy current pendulum 3A50.77
• Driven mechanical resonance 3A60
• Tacoma Narrows film 3A60.10
• Driven glider on air track 3A60.20
• Driven mass (dragon) on spring 3A60.40
• Coupled oscillations 3A70
• Wilberforce pendulum 3A70.10
• Coupled pendula 3A70.20
• Normal modes 3A75
• Coupled harmonic oscillators 3A75.10
• Lissajous figures 3A80
• Lissajous sand pendulum 3A80.10
• Lissajous figures - scope 3A80.20
• Non-linear systems 3A95
• Chaos systems 3A95.50
• Pump a swing 3A95.70
• Wave motion 3B
• Transverse pulses and waves 3B10
• The wave - transverse 3B10.05
• Pulse on a long spring 3B10.10
• Slinky on a table 3B10.20
• Shive/Bell labs wave model 3B10.30
• Longitudinal pulses and waves 3B20
• The wave - longitudinal 3B20.05
• Longitudinal wave on air track 3B20.20
• Speed of particles versus waves 3B20.60
• Crova's disk 3B20.70
• Driven spring 3B20.77
• Standing waves 3B22
• Vibrating string 3B22.10
• Impedance and dispersion 3B25
• Impedance matching - Shive model 3B25.10
• Reflection - Shive model 3B25.20
• Spring wave reflection 3B25.25
• Fixed and free rope reflection 3B25.26
• Wave properties of sound 3B30
• Speed of sound by phase difference 3B30.10
• Bell in a vacuum 3B30.30
• Speaker and candle 3B30.40
• Doppler effect 3B40
• Doppler buzzer 3B40.10
• Interference and diffraction 3B50
• Ripple tank - single slit 3B50.10
• Ripple tank - double source 3B50.20
• Ripple tank - film loops 3B50.30
• Moire pattern transparencies 3B50.40
• Beats 3B60
• Beat tuning forks 3B60.10
• Coupled resonators 3B70
• Coupled tuning forks 3B70.10
• Acoustics 3C
• Pitch 3C20
• Range of hearing 3C20.10
• Siren disk 3C20.30
• Intensity and attenuation 3C30
• dB meters and horn 3C30.20
• Wave analysis and synthesis 3C50
• PASCO Fourier synthesizer 3C50.10
• Instruments 3D
• Resonance cavities 3D30
• Vertical resonance tube 3D30.10
• Open and closed tubes 3D30.20
• Hoot tubes 3D30.70
• Air column instruments 3D32
• Organ pipes 3D32.10
• Resonance in plates, bars, and solids 3D40
• Singing rod 3D40.20
• Chladni plate 3D40.30
• Tuning forks 3D46
• Tuning forks on resonance boxes 3D46.16