Wave Machine Demonstration
Why Physics Stack Exchange recommends it
Physics Stack Exchange answerers link it to show concretely that a wave is a disturbance moving through a medium while the individual parts only oscillate in place.
Recommended by 1 people across 1 different months, 2017 to 2023.
What it is
A short classroom demonstration from the National STEM Centre showing how to build and use a simple wave machine, with rods or jelly babies on a central connection. It shows transverse wave motion and how a disturbance travels along the medium.
What people said
Recommends Filip Milovanović · 2021-03 · Physics Stack Exchange · on “What exactly does a sinusoidal wave represent in relation to sound waves?”
@NishaPrakash BTW, see the video here [LINK] at 3:26. Notice that the rods oscillate in place, and that it's the disturbance that propagates, not the rods; this is because they can interact trough a central connection that transfers torsion (see this [this video] for a low tech version). Incidentally, the displacement in this case describes the *angular displacement* of the rod (it's really a torsion wave).
Cites anna v · 2017-05 · Physics Stack Exchange · on “Waves and forces”
Please look at this video [this video] , and others like it if you search for wave generation on youtube. You can clearly see that the only force applied in this demonstration is at one time, t1, by twisting one stick, a dp/dt , instantaneous force is applied. The creation of the wave depends on the materials used, the disturbance travels by displacing the medium either longitudinally or trasversly and then the physical bonds of the medium transfer the motion and a wave is generated. In this video [LINK] the impulse is when the stone hits the water, then sperical waves take off, by the elasticity of the medium, kinetic energy changing to potential energy as the wave spreads with the original mome
Cites mmesser314 · 2023-05 · Physics Stack Exchange · on “What is the physical significance of crest and trough in an electromagnetic wave?”
Let's start with mechanical waves. Wave Machine Demonstration [this video] . This Jelly Baby wave machine shows that if you move one Jelly Baby up and down, you create a wave that moves away. The crest and trough are the high and low points in the wave. They match how far up and down the original Jelly Baby moved. But keep in mind the wave is a different thing from the original Jelly Baby. For light, the situation is different. Vibrating an electron up and down generates a light wave. One way to do this is in a radio antenna. It is a long vertical wire. Electrons move up and down in it. It emits a very low frequency, long wavelength form of light called a radio wave. These are much, much longer t