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Chladni Plate

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For my wave apparatus, I designed an alternative version of a Chladni plate. Traditionally, a Chladni plate consists of a metal surface sprinkled with sand or salt, which reveals standing wave patterns when vibrated. However, instead of using a plate with dry particles, I modified the demonstration by using a shallow dish filled with water placed on top of a speaker. This setup allowed me to visualize wave patterns in the water using vibrations from the speaker at various frequencies, with an added visual effect of dye in the water to make the motion more distinct. Wave pattern produced at 56 Hz This apparatus demonstrates several key wave principles, including constructive interference , standing waves , and resonance . Constructive Interference occurs when two waves combine to form a wave of greater amplitude. In this setup, the vibrations from the speaker continuously interact with the water, and at certain points, the crests of the waves reinforce each other, producing visible hig...
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Visualization of Sound With Water

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Visualization of Sound With Water   My demonstration involved  a subwoofer with a tube pressed against it, several feet off the ground.      A 30 Hz sine wave tone is played through the subwoofer, and as the water runs through the moving tube, the water comes out in a waveform. This is purely an illusion, and cannot be seen through the naked eye. For this to work, the camera’s frames per second are equivalent to the frequency of the generated tone-30 frames per second (this can also be done at 24 Hz and 24 frames per second video). This is an example of a traveling wave, which is a wave that travels from one point to another, free of interference and reflection. It is also an example of a transverse wave, where the points oscillate perpendicular to its direction. I also demonstrated the same principle, but with the subwoofer sideways, and got a similar result. When the tone played through the speaker changed to 29 hz, it appeared as though the waves were traveli...
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The Rubens Tube

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We built the Rubens tube using the following model:  Josh the Engineer blog Essentially, the idea is to create a visual representation of a sound wave. This is possible using the idea of Harmonics and Resonance as discussed in the earlier post. The soft membrane at one end of the tube will vibrate at the frequency of the speaker against it creating a longitudinal wave with the gas filling the tube. The wave travels down the tube and reflects off the end, and at the right frequency (again, harmonics!) the returning waves will perfectly align with the waves coming from the membrane and a standing wave is formed. Once this is achieved, there will be points of nodes and antinodes that are now stationary. This is visualized by the flames on top, with the higher flames coming at the nodes, and the lower flames at the antinodes. The first 4 harmonics displayed We were also able to find the fundamental frequency, which was 122 Hertz. This created a single wave standing on top of the tube (...
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Oscilliscope

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     In physics, one thing we learned about was an oscilloscope. An oscilloscope is a device that shows a visual representation of voltage over time. You can set the oscilloscope to receive voltage from anything using probes such as sound/sound waves, and electromagnetic waves (light, radio waves, x-ray waves).  During the term, by connecting the oscilloscope to our laptop's sound as a source we analyzed wave patterns and how they are formed using the oscilloscope. We mainly used sine and square waves as they produced the best visual representations of the sound. Some things we saw and found were amplitude frequency, how different shapes sound, and wave interference. Typically most oscilloscopes plot waves with amplitude(y-axis) vs time (x-axis). We did this at the beginning to see the sound waves but also we changed it by plotting a left channel on the y-axis and a right channel on the x-axis. By using two wave sources instead of one, we were able to generate a 3D v...
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Ripple Tank - Leo Rosin

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 The construction and utilization of the ripple tank was an interesting task that was filled with a myriad of problems and cool demos On the first Friday, we ordered the stuff for our demonstrations, I ordered a 24 in by 24 in clear acrylic sheet for the base of the ripple tank, a 2x4 24in long block of wood for the paddle, some 1/4in plastic tubes to serve as legs, a motor to move the paddle, and some polystyrene to use for the sides of the tank. On Monday I set about assembling the tank but forgot duct tape and superglue so I helped other people with their projects. On Tuesday I cut the polystyrene sheet into 24inx2in tall strips to serve as walls, I then used tape and superglue to attach them to the rim of the acrylic sheet. I decided to ditch the legs as they were too thin and instead duct-taped the tank to four stools. I used PVC pipe to create an arm to hang the paddle off of and took the paddle home to shorten it somewhat. On Wednesday I set up the paddle with the motor and ...
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Week 1: Learning Waves

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 Course Description and Goals: Everything you see is waves. In this course we will study the different types of waves: mechanical and electromagnetic. We will examine the mathematics behind them, as well as construct several different “wave machines” to demonstrate what we have learned. Some days will consist of lecture and planning, while others will be entirely dedicated to building and troubleshooting. Students will be assessed on their understanding of physics and math concepts, as well as their engagement with their engineering projects. Wave Anatomy During the first week, our goal was to learn all about waves. This included the different ways we encounter waves (mechanical, electromagnetic, and matter), as well as learning about standing vs. traveling waves. The first day we learned about the anatomy of a wave - what are its different parts? This includes: Amplitude - how far the wave is displaced from its resting point or equilibrium Crests and Troughs - these are the point...
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