Question

I don't know how much help you can give me but if you can please help answer 5-8! TIA

Shake the non-fixed end of the slinky to create a standing wave.  If you do this on the floor, it would be best to have a hard surface, so the slinky is not sliding against carpet.  Practice until you are able to produce standing waves with two nodes(at the two ends), three nodes (two at the ends and one in the middle), and four nodes (two at the ends and two between the ends).  There are some sample pictures below to guide your work.

Figure #1

5. Determine the frequency of the side to side (or up and down) oscillations necessary to create each of the following three standing waves:

                                    a. 2 nodes (one at each end); find frequency = f₁

                                    b. 3 nodes (at the ends and one in the middle); find frequency = f₂

                                    c. 4 nodes (at the ends and two between the ends); find frequency = f₃

6. Take a photo of your experimental setup and insert it here.

7. Write the mathematical relationship between the frequencies you found above.  What would you expect for the frequency of f_n?

8.  Grab your slinky at the halfway point, and then stretch it to the same length you were using in previous questions. What is now different from the activity you did above? How would you expect that to change the behavior of the system?  Explain.

Answer 1