Amplitude Biên độ

Wavelength Bước sóng

Frequency Tần số

Hertz Hertz

Period Chu kì

Wave speed Tốc độ sóng

Transverse wave Sóng ngang

Longitudinal wave Sóng dọc

Interference pattern Mẫu nhiễu

Standing wave Sóng đứng

Doppler effect hiệu ứng Doppler

Bow wave bụng sóng

Shock wave Điện giật

Sonic boom tiếng nổ siêu âm

Infrasonic Hạ âm

Ultrasonic Siêu âm

Refraction khúc xạ

Natural frequency Tần số dao động riêng

Resonance cộng hưởng

Interference Giao thoa

Pitch Độ cao (của âm)

Intensity Cường độ âm

Fundamental frequency Tần số cơ bản

1. What is the frequency of a wave, given that its period is about 0.01667 second?

Answer: 60 Hz.

2. Gusts of wind make the Sears Building in Chicago sway back and forth at a
vibration frequency of about 0.1 Hz. What is its period of vibration?

Answer: 10 s.
3. If a water wave oscillates up and down three times each second and the distance
between wave crests is 2 m, what is its frequency? What is its wavelength? What
is its wave speed?

Answer: f =3 Hz; λ = 2 m; v = 6 m/s

4. Is it possible for one wave to cancel another wave so that no amplitude remains?

Answer: Yes, it is possible.

5. While you’re at rest, a sound source moves toward you. Do you measure an increase
or a decrease in the speed of its sound wave?

6. What is the source of all waves?

Answer: vibrating objects

7. Which has the longer period, a short or a long pendulum?

8. How many vibrations per second are represented in a radio wave of 1 01.7 MHz?

9. How do frequency and period relate to each other?

10. In one word, what is it that moves from source to receiver in wave motion?

11. Does the medium in which a wave travels move with the wave? Give examples to support your answer.

12. What is the relationship among frequency, wavelength, and wave speed?

13. In what direction are the vibrations relative to the direction of wave travel in a transverse wave?

14. In what direction are the vibrations relative to the direction of wave travel in a longitudinal wave?

15. The wavelength of a transverse wave is the distance between successive crests (or troughs). What is the
wavelength of a longitudinal wave?

16. What is meant by the superposition principle?

17. What kinds of waves can show interference?

18. What is a node? What is an antinode?

19. In the Doppler effect, does frequency change? Does wavelength change? Does wave speed change?

20. Can the Doppler effect be observed with longitudinal waves, with transverse waves, or with both?

21. How fast does a supersonic aircraft fly compared with the speed of sound?

22. How does the V shape of a bow wave depend on the speed of the source?

23. Does the period of a pendulum depend on the mass of the bob? On the length of the string?

24. A heavy person and a light person swing to and fro on swings of the same length. Who has the longer
period?
25. If a pendulum is shortened, does its frequency increase or decrease? What about its period?

26. What happens to the period of a wave when the frequency decreases?

27. If the speed of a wave doubles while the frequency remains the same, what happens to the wavelength?

28. If the speed of a wave doubles while the wavelength remains the same, what happens to the frequency?

29. If we double the frequency of a vibrating object or the wave it produces, what happens to the period?

30. What is the frequency of the second hand of a clock? The minute hand? The hour hand?

31. How far, in terms of wavelength, does a wave travel in one period?

32. Why is lightning seen before thunder is heard?

33. Why is there a Doppler effect when the source of sound is stationary and the listener is in motion? In
which direction should the listener move to hear a higher frequency? A lower frequency?

34. Would it be correct to say that the Doppler effect is the apparent change in the speed of a wave due to
motion of the source?

35. What can you say about the speed of a boat that makes a bow wave?

36. If the sound of an airplane does not come from the part of the sky where the plane is seen, does this
imply that the airplane is traveling faster than the speed of sound? Explain.

37. If the Moon blew up, why would we not hear it?

38. Can we detect sounds from other planets? Why?

39. Why do flying bees buzz?

40. Suppose a sound wave and an electromagnetic wave have the same frequency. Which has the longer
wave- length?

41. When a sound wave moves past a point in air, are there changes in the density of air at this point?
Explain.

42. Why is it so quiet after a snowfall?

Answer: Because snow is a good absorber of sound, it reflects little sound-hence quietness.

43. Is it true that frequency is a quantitative measure of pitch?

44. As the pitch of sound increases, what happens to the frequency?

45. If sound becomes louder, which wave characteristic is likely increasing-frequency, wavelength,
amplitude, or speed?

46. A guitar string vibrates in a standing-wave pattern, as shown below. What is the wavelength of the
wave?
47. The string of a cello playing the note C oscillates at 264 Hz, What is the period of the string’s
oscillation?

48. In the oscilloscopes shown below, which screen shows the louder sound (assuming detection by
equivalent microphones)?

Answer: The pattern on the right has the greater amplitude and is therefore louder.

49. One person has a threshold of hearing of 5 dB, and another of 10 dB. Which person has the more acute
hearing?

50. The note middle C on a piano has a fundamental frequency of 262 Hz. What is the frequency of the
second harmonic of this note?

Answer: The second harmonic has twice the frequency, 524 Hz.

51. If the fundamental frequency of a violin string is 440 Hz, what is the frequency of the second harmonic?
Of the third harmonic?

52. Which of the following represents a simple harmonic oscillator:

(a) ; (b) F = -1,3z; (c) F = 5.6x; (d) F = -7θ?

53. Does a car bounce faster on its springs when empty or fully loaded?

54. Is the acceleration of a simple harmonic oscillator ever zero? If so where?

55. If a particle undergoes SHM with amplitude 0.18 m, what is the total distance it travels in one period?

56. Consider a wave traveling along a thick rope tied to a thin rope. Which of these three wave
characteristics does not undergo change-speed, frequency, or wavelength?

Sample problems:

1. What is the frequency, in hertz, that corresponds to each of the following

3. Radio waves travel at the speed of light- 300,000 km/s. What is the wavelength
of radio
waves received at 100.1 MHz on your FM radio dial?

4. On a keyboard, you strike middle C, whose frequency is 256 Hz. (a) What is
the period of one vibration of this tone? (b) As the sound leaves the instrument at
a speed of 340 m/s, what is its wavelength in air?

5. What is the wavelength of a 340-Hz tone in air? What is the wavelength of a

6. An oceanic depth-sounding vessel surveys the ocean bottom with ultrasonic

7. A bat flying in a cave emits a sound and receives its echo 0.1 s later. How far
away is the cave wall?

8. Two speakers are wired to emit identical sounds in unison. The wavelength in
air of the sounds is 6 m. State whether the sounds interfere constructively or
destructively when you are at a distance of (a) 12 m from both speakers, (b) 9 m
from both speakers, and (c) 9 m from one speaker and 12 m from the other.

9. A grunting porpoise emits sound at 57 Hz. What is the wavelength of this

10. The highest frequencies humans can hear is about 20,000 Hz. What is the
wavelength of sound in air at this frequency? What is the wavelength for the
lowest sounds we can hear, about 20 Hz?

11. How much more intense than the threshold of hearing is a sound of 10 dB?
30 dB? 60 dB?

Answer: The decibel scale is based upon powers of 10. The ear responds to
sound intensity in logarithmic fashion. Each time the intensity of sound is made
10 times larger, the intensity level in decibels increases by 10 units. So a sound
of

(a) 10 dB is ten times more intense than the threshold of hearing

(b) 30 dB is one thousand times more intense than the threshold of hearing.

(c) 60 dB is one million times more intense than the threshold of hearing.
12. When a family of four with a total mass of 200 kg step into their 1200-kg car,
the car’s springs compress 3.0 cm. (a) What is the spring constant of the car’s
springs, assuming they act as a single spring? (b) How far will the car lower if
loaded with 300 kg rather than 200 kg?

13. A spider of mass 0.30 g waits in its web of negligible mass. A slight
movement causes the web to vibrate with a frequency of about 15 Hz. (a)
Estimate the value of the spring stiffness constant k for the web. (b) At what
frequency would you expect the web to vibrate if an insect of mass 0.1 g were
trapped in addition to the spider?

14. A geologist uses” simple pendulum that has a length of 37.10 cm and ”
frequency of 0.8190 Hz ” at a particular location on the Earth. What is the
acceleration of gravity at this location?

15. (a) Estimate the length of the pendulum, in a clock that ticks once per second,
(b) What wold be the period of a clock with a 1.0 m-long pendulum?