Musical instruments and throats create different notes by making the air around them vibrate at particular frequencies (check out part one to find out how they do it). When you pluck the A string on a ...

Usually a vibrating string produces a sound whose frequency is constant. Therefore, since frequency characterizes the pitch, the sound produced is a constant note. Vibrating strings are the basis of ...

A string is driven by a function generator that is attached to an oscillator. By adjusting the frequency of the oscillation, the string can be used to demonstrate standing waves. A strobe light is ...

We compare and contrast closed-ended, open-ended, and closed-on-one-end tubes. In this Closer Look segment on Standing Waves, we compare and contrast closed-ended, open-ended, and closed-on-one-end ...

A plucked guitar string can vibrate for seconds before falling silent. A playground swing, emptied of its passenger, will gradually come to rest. These are what physicists call "damped harmonic ...

Imagine plucking a guitar string. It vibrates, the sound lingers, and then fades away as the energy drains into the air. Now bring this scene down to the scale of an atom. Can an atom vibrate in the ...