Lab Report 1: Standing waves in String

Introduction:

The Purpose of this lab is to measure little g by using oscillations of a standing wave set up on a
string under tension. A standing wave is seen when the two waves are constructively interfering
with each other thus creating the spaces between two nodes. Using the waves that we are going to
create, we will be looking at points that are out of phase (loops) and points that are in phase (nodes)
to determine the wavelength of the wave we created. We should expect that as the amount of mass
is increased when creating the wave, the wavelength will increase and due to that, as the
wavelength increases, the frequency will be lower because the waves will be larger with increased
mass used. When we see a Tsunami, that is the transverse aspect (component) of a water wave.
This is a transverse wave because the displacement is perpendicular to the direction of the wave
which in this example goes towards the shore. Other examples of transverse waves are radio waves,
ultraviolet waves, gamma rays, x-rays, etc.

Procedure:
Materials used:

 slotted mass set

 ruler
 meter stick
 track
 wave oscillation unit
 sine wave generator
 thick white string
 pan

Experiment 1:

 Take the white string and set it up on the buzzer as shown in the picture.
 Place 200-gram weight on the slotted mass hanger and adjust the frequency knob to get
the fundamental resonance, n=1 and λ = 2L.
 Record the wavelength and frequency on the data table as shown in table-1.
 Repeat the same process for up to n=5.
 Generate a graph of 1/n vs wavelength to prove the relation between these parameters
1 1
= 𝜆
𝑛 2𝐿
Experiment 2:

 Take the string and measure its mass using the balance and the length using the meter
stick. Dividing the mass and the length of the string, we will get linear mass density of
the string.
 Set up the string on the buzzer (vibrating at a given frequency) mounted on a board with
a pulley.
 Measure the mass of the pan using the balance.
 Turn the buzzer on and add masses to the pan.
 Record the total mass. Count the spaces between the nodes (excluding the spaces at the
end of the buzzer mounted on the board). Measure the wavelength and record the
frequency at which we can see the highest amplitude.
 Keeping the wavelength constant, repeat the same process by adding masses and record
the data on data table as shown in table-2. And calculate the tension by using the formula
𝑇 = 𝑓 2 𝜆2 𝜇.
 Generate the g-value by using the graph of tension vs mass.

Data/results:
Experiment 1:

N Wavelength (m) Frequency (hz)

1 .2 12
2 .1 25
3 .067 38
4 .05 52
5 .04 65

Table 1: Data table of n, wavelength and frequency

1/n vs wavelength
1.2
1 y = 5x + 3E-16
R² = 1
0.8
0.6
1/n

0.4
0.2
0
0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25
Wavelength (m)
 Graph 1: 1/n vs wavelength
From the graph, Slope = 1/2L = .5m-1
1/2L = 1/(2*100m) = .5m-1

Experiment 2:
𝜏
𝑣 = √𝜇 ……… (i)

𝑣 = 𝑓λ ………. (ii)

From equation (i) and (ii) we get 𝑇 = 𝑓 2 𝜆2 𝜇

Mass of the string, ms =

Length of the string, L =
Linear mass density, µ =

Mass (kg) Wavelength2 Frequency (hz) Frequency2 Tension g

(m2) (hz2) (kgms2)
0.2 .25 45 2025 2.5 12.5
0.3 .25 51 2601 3.0679 10.23
0.4 .25 58 3364 3.9796 9.949
0.5 .25 66 4356 5.15318 10.306
0.6 .25 74 5476 6.478108 10.7968
Table 2: Data of the 2nd experiment

Tension vs mass
7
6 y = 9.4165x0.8687
tension (kgm/s^2)

5 R² = 0.966
4
3
2
1
0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7
mass (kg)
 Tension vs Mass
7
6
5

tension (N)
4
3
y = 10.041x + 0.2192
2 R² = 0.9778
1
0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7
Mass (kg)

Graph 2: tension vs mass graph

From the graph, g = 9.4165m/s2
(9.83−9.4165)
Percent error of the string = ∗ 100 = 4.39%
9.4165

Report question:

1) What aspects of the experiment would you refine to make a better measurement?
 More trials of the experiment would make a better measurement. Also, reading the
frequency was an important part of the experiment. Reading the frequency accurately
would have given us a accurate g value.

Conclusion:

In the 2nd experiment, we calculated the g value from the standing waves. After the experiment,
we determined that our g value was 9.4165m/s2 with a percent error of 4.39%. The g value we
got from the excel graph was quite close to the little g value which is 9.81. After each trial, we
got g value around 10. However, from the graph we find the g value 9.41m/s which indicated
that more trial could have given us a more precise and accurate g value.