Morada, Ma. Cristina A.

General Physics

BEED III-2 Prof. Nestor Lavin

VIBRATION AND WAVES

In this chapter, we are going to discuss about Hooke’s law, elastic potential energy, comparing
simple harmonic motion with uniform circular motion, position, velocity, and acceleration as a function
of time, motion of a pendulum, damped oscillations, waves, frequency, amplitude, and wavelength, the
speed of waves on strings, interference of waves, and reflection of waves

13.1 HOOKE’S LAW

 This force law for springs was discovered by Robert Hooke in 1678.
 a law stating that the strain in a solid is proportional to the applied stress within the
elastic limit of that solid.

Spring Constant

 is a number that represents how much force it takes to stretch a material -- materials
with larger spring constants are stiffer.

Restoring Force

 always pushes or pulls the object toward the equilibrium position

Simple harmonic motion

 occurs when the net force along the direction of motion obeys Hooke’s law—when the
net force is proportional to the displacement from the equilibrium point and is always
directed toward the equilibrium point.

Periodic Motion

 in physics, motion repeated in equal intervals of time.

 refers to any movement of an object that is repeated in a given length of time. 
 Example: a rocking chair, a bouncing ball, a vibrating tuning fork, a swing in motion, the
Earth in its orbit around the Sun, and a water wave. 

Three (3) concepts of Periodic Motion

1. Amplitude A
 is the maximum distance of the object from its equilibrium position.
2. Period T
 is the time it takes the object to move through one complete cycle of motion

3. Frequency f
  is the number of complete cycles or vibrations per unit of time, and is the reciprocal of
the period.

13.2 ELASTIC POTENTIAL ENERGY

Elastic Potential Energy

 is a potential energy stored as a result of deformation of an elastic object, such as the

stretching of a spring.
 it is equal to the work done to stretch the spring, which depends upon the spring
constant k as well as the distance stretched.
 according to Hooke's law, the force required to stretch the spring will be directly
proportional to the amount of stretch.

13.3 COMPARING SIMPLE HARMONIC MOTION WITH UNIFORM CIRCULAR MOTION

Simple Harmonic Motion

 described as one-dimensional projection of this motion

Uniform Circular Motion

 describes the movement of an object traveling a circular path with constant

speed. 

Example:

A ball is attached to the rim of a turntable of radius A, illuminated from the side by a
lamp. We find that as the turntable rotates with constant angular speed, the shadow of the ball
moves back and forth with simple harmonic motion.

13.4 POSITION, VELOCITY, AND ACCELERATION AS A FUNCTION OF TIME

Position as Function of Time

 if you know the initial position, the initial velocity, and the acceleration, then you
can determine the position of the object as a function of time.
 The first two equation of motion each describe one kinematic variable as a function of time. In
essence velocity is directly proportional to time when acceleration is constant. Displacement is
proportional to time squared when acceleration is constant.

13.5 MOTION OF A PENDELUM

Pendelum

 is a weight suspended from a pivot so that it can swing freely.

  When a pendulum is displaced sideways from its resting, equilibrium position, it
is subject to a restoring force due to gravity that will accelerate it back toward
the equilibrium position.
 A simple pendulum is another mechanical system that exhibits periodic motion.
It consists of a small bob of mass m suspended by a light string of length L fixed
at its upper end.

Example:

A simple pendulum consists of a bob of mass m suspended by a light string of

length L. (L is the distance from the pivot to the center of mass of the bob.) The
restoring force that causes the pendulum to undergo simple harmonic motion is the
component of gravitational force tangent to the path of motion, mg sin Ø.

Physical Pendulum

 is simply a rigid object which swings freely about some pivot point.

13.6 DAMPED OSCILLATIONS

Damped Oscillation

  an oscillation that fades away with time

 Examples include a swinging pendulum, a weight on a spring, and also a
resistor - inductor - capacitor (RLC) circuit.

Underdamped oscillation

 Damped motion varies with the fluid used.

 For example, if the fluid has a relatively low viscosity, the vibrating motion is preserved
but the amplitude of vibration decreases in time and the motion ultimately ceases.

13.7 WAVES

Waves

 can be described as a disturbance that travels through a medium from one location to

another location
 is a disturbance (change from equilibrium) of one or more fields such that the field
values oscillate repeatedly about a stable equilibrium (resting) value.

Types of Waves

1. Traveling Wave
 the bump (called a pulse) travels to the right with a definite speed.
 As such a wave pulse travels along the string, each segment of the string that is
disturbed moves in a direction perpendicular to the wave motion.
 A wave pulse traveling along a stretched string. The shape of the pulse is
approximately unchanged as it travels as shown in Figure 13.21
 2. Transverse Waves
 A traveling wave in which the particles of the disturbed medium move in a
direction perpendicular to the wave velocity.
 is set up in a spring by moving one end of the spring perpendicular to its length
as shown in Figure 13.23 (a)
3. Longitudinal Waves
 the elements of the medium undergo displacements parallel to the direction of
wave motion
 A longitudinal pulse along a stretched spring. The displacement of the coils is in the
direction of the wave motion. For the starting motion described in the text, the
compressed region is followed by a stretched region as shown in Figure 13.23 (b)

13.8 FREQUENCY, AMPLITUDE, AND WAVELENGTH

Frequency

 is a measurement of how many cycles can happen in a certain amount of time cycles
per second.
 Hertz is the unit of frequency

Amplitude

 The maximum distance the string moves above or below this equilibrium value.
  is a measure of how big the wave is.

Wavelength

 is defined as the distance from a particular height on the wave to the next spot
on the wave where it is at the same height and going in the same direction.
 is a property of a wave that most people (once they know what to look for) can
spot quickly and easily, and use it as a way of telling waves apart.

13.9 THE SPEED OF WAVES ON STRINGS

 Velocity is found by dividing the distance traveled by the time it took to travel that
distance. In waves, this is found by dividing the wavelength by the period.

For a vibrating string, there are two speeds to consider.

1. the speed of the physical string that vibrates up and down, transverse to the string, in the y-
direction.
2. the wave speed, which is the rate at which the disturbance propagates along the length of
the string in the x-direction.

13.10 INTERFERENCE OF WAVES

Wave Interference

 is the phenomenon that occurs when two waves meet while traveling along the same
medium. 
  causes the medium to take on a shape that results from the net effect of the two
individual waves upon the particles of the medium.
 Two traveling waves can meet and pass through each other without being destroyed
or even altered.

Superposition Principle

 When two or more traveling waves encounter each other while moving through a
medium, the resultant wave is found by adding together the displacements of the
individual waves point by point.

Constructive interference

 is a type of interference that occurs at any location along the medium where the two
interfering waves have a displacement in the same direction.
 If two waves having the same frequency and amplitude are in phase, as in (a) and (b),
the resultant wave when they combine (c) has the same frequency as the individual
waves, but twice their amplitude as shown in Figure 13.29.

Destructive interference

 is a type of interference that occurs at any location along the medium where the two
interfering waves have a displacement in the opposite direction.
 When two waves with the same frequency and amplitude are 180° out of phase, as in
(a) and (b), the result when they combine (c) is complete cancellation as shown in Figure
13.30.
13.11 REFLECTION OF WAVES

 is simply a process by which a wave, whether light, sound, infrared, or radio waves, hits an
object and bounces off it. But this reflection looks quite different for a mirror than it does for a
wall.
 When a wave pulse reflects from a rigid boundary, the pulse is inverted. When the boundary is
free, the reflected pulse is not inverted.