Standing Waves on a string

For this lab, our goal was to analyze mechanical waves on a string, specifically standing waves. We were given a frequency generator, a long string, a ruler, some weights, and a mechanical oscillator. This is a picture of our setup. Not visible is the hanging mass, which is over the opposite end of the table.

When a vibrating string produces standing waves, the number of nodes and antinodes that appear depend on the tension in the string, the length of the string, and the frequency of oscillations. By counting the n number of loops, we can easily come up with wavelength because wavelength is simply 2L/n
The velocity of a wave on a string is denoted by v = √(T/µ) where T is the tension in the string and µ is the mass per unit length of the string.

For our first set of data, the oscillating length of string was 133 cm with a hanging mass of 200g. Our velocity was therefore √(200g/1.38g/m) = 12 m/s

Freq.	Nodes	Wavelen
17Hz	2	2.66 m
32Hz	3	1.33 m
46Hz	4	88.7 cm
63Hz	5	66.5 cm
76Hz	6	53.2 cm
109Hz	8	38 cm

For data set 2, we reduced the tension to 100g

Freq	Nodes	Wavelen
27Hz	2	2.66 m
48Hz	3	1.33 m
71Hz	4	88.7 cm
88Hz	5	66.5 cm
113Hz	6	53.2 cm
134Hz	7	38 cm