16 - Wave Motion - PUZZLER A simple seismograph can be...

c h a p t e r
Wave Motion
P
U Z Z L E R
A simple seismograph can be con-
structed with a spring-suspended pen
that draws a line on a slowly unrolling
strip of paper. The paper is mounted on a
structure attached to the ground. During
an earthquake, the pen remains nearly
stationary while the paper shakes be-
neath it. How can a few jagged lines on a
piece of paper allow scientists at a seis-
mograph station to determine the dis-
tance to the origin of an earthquake?
(Ken M. Johns/Photo Researchers, Inc.)
C h a p t e r O u t l i n e
16.1
Basic Variables of Wave Motion
16.2
Direction of Particle
Displacement
16.3
One-Dimensional Traveling
Waves
16.4
Superposition and Interference
16.5
The Speed of Waves on Strings
16.6
Reflection and Transmission
16.7
Sinusoidal Waves
16.8
Rate of Energy Transfer by
Sinusoidal Waves on Strings
16.9
(Optional) The Linear Wave
Equation
P
U Z Z L E R
490

16.1 Wave Motion 491
ost of us experienced waves as children when we dropped a pebble into a
pond. At the point where the pebble hits the water’s surface, waves are cre-
ated. These waves move outward from the creation point in expanding cir-
cles until they reach the shore. If you were to examine carefully the motion of a
leaf floating on the disturbed water, you would see that the leaf moves up, down,
and sideways about its original position but does not undergo any net displace-
ment away from or toward the point where the pebble hit the water. The water
molecules just beneath the leaf, as well as all the other water molecules on the
pond’s surface, behave in the same way. That is, the water wave moves from the
point of origin to the shore, but the water is not carried with it.
An excerpt from a book by Einstein and Infeld gives the following remarks
concerning wave phenomena:
1
A bit of gossip starting in Washington reaches New York [by word of mouth]
very quickly, even though not a single individual who takes part in spreading it
travels between these two cities. There are two quite different motions in-
volved, that of the rumor, Washington to New York, and that of the persons
who spread the rumor. The wind, passing over a field of grain, sets up a wave
which spreads out across the whole field. Here again we must distinguish be-
tween the motion of the wave and the motion of the separate plants, which un-
dergo only small oscillations... The particles constituting the medium perform
only small vibrations, but the whole motion is that of a progressive wave. The
essentially new thing here is that for the first time we consider the motion of
something which is not matter, but energy propagated through matter.
The world is full of waves, the two main types being mechanical waves and elec-
tromagnetic waves. We have already mentioned examples of mechanical waves:
sound waves, water waves, and “grain waves.” In each case, some physical medium
is being disturbed—in our three particular examples, air molecules, water mole-
cules, and stalks of grain. Electromagnetic waves do not require a medium to propa-