Advertisements
Advertisements
Question
The radio and TV programmes, telecast at the studio, reach our antenna by wave motion. Is it a mechanical wave or nonmechanical?
Advertisements
Solution
It is a non-mechanical wave because this type of wave does not require a material medium to travel.
APPEARS IN
RELATED QUESTIONS
A steel wire has a length of 12.0 m and a mass of 2.10 kg. What should be the tension in the wire so that speed of a transverse wave on the wire equals the speed of sound in dry air at 20 °C = 343 m s–1.
A bat emits an ultrasonic sound of frequency 1000 kHz in the air. If the sound meets a water surface, what is the wavelength of the transmitted sound? The speed of sound in air is 340 m s–1 and in water 1486 m s–1.
For the wave described in Exercise 15.8, plot the displacement (y) versus (t) graphs for x = 0, 2 and 4 cm. What are the shapes of these graphs? In which aspects does the oscillatory motion in travelling wave differ from one point to another: amplitude, frequency or phase?
A metre-long tube open at one end, with a movable piston at the other end, shows resonance with a fixed frequency source (a tuning fork of frequency 340 Hz) when the tube length is 25.5 cm or 79.3 cm. Estimate the speed of sound in air at the temperature of the experiment. The edge effects may be neglected.
A train, standing at the outer signal of a railway station blows a whistle of frequency 400 Hz in still air. (i) What is the frequency of the whistle for a platform observer when the train (a) approaches the platform with a speed of 10 m s–1, (b) recedes from the platform with a speed of 10 m s–1? (ii) What is the speed of sound in each case? The speed of sound in still air can be taken as 340 m s–1.
A train, standing in a station-yard, blows a whistle of frequency 400 Hz in still air. The wind starts blowing in the direction from the yard to the station with at a speed of 10 m s–1. What are the frequency, wavelength, and speed of sound for an observer standing on the station’s platform? Is the situation exactly identical to the case when the air is still and the observer runs towards the yard at a speed of 10 m s–1? The speed of sound in still air can be taken as 340 m s–1.
A SONAR system fixed in a submarine operates at a frequency 40.0 kHz. An enemy submarine moves towards the SONAR with a speed of 360 km h–1. What is the frequency of sound reflected by the submarine? Take the speed of sound in water to be 1450 m s–1.
Earthquakes generate sound waves inside the earth. Unlike a gas, the earth can experience both transverse (S) and longitudinal (P) sound waves. Typically the speed of S wave is about 4.0 km s–1, and that of P wave is 8.0 km s–1. A seismograph records P and S waves from an earthquake. The first P wave arrives 4 min before the first S wave. Assuming the waves travel in straight line, at what distance does the earthquake occur?
Two waves of equal amplitude A, and equal frequency travel in the same direction in a medium. The amplitude of the resultant wave is
A wave pulse is travelling on a string with a speed \[\nu\] towards the positive X-axis. The shape of the string at t = 0 is given by g(x) = Asin(x/a), where A and a are constants. (a) What are the dimensions of A and a ? (b) Write the equation of the wave for a general time t, if the wave speed is \[\nu\].
A wave travelling on a string at a speed of 10 m s−1 causes each particle of the string to oscillate with a time period of 20 ms. (a) What is the wavelength of the wave? (b) If the displacement of a particle of 1⋅5 mm at a certain instant, what will be the displacement of a particle 10 cm away from it at the same instant?
A 200 Hz wave with amplitude 1 mm travels on a long string of linear mass density 6 g m−1 kept under a tension of 60 N. (a) Find the average power transmitted across a given point on the string. (b) Find the total energy associated with the wave in a 2⋅0 m long portion of the string.
A steel wire fixed at both ends has a fundamental frequency of 200 Hz. A person can hear sound of maximum frequency 14 kHz. What is the highest harmonic that can be played on this string which is audible to the person?
Figure shows an aluminium wire of length 60 cm joined to a steel wire of length 80 cm and stretched between two fixed supports. The tension produced is 40 N. The cross-sectional area of the steel wire is 1⋅0 mm2 and that of the aluminium wire is 3⋅0 mm2. What could be the minimum frequency of a tuning fork which can produce standing waves in the system with the joint as a node? The density of aluminium is 2⋅6 g cm−3 and that of steel is 7⋅8 g cm−3.

The string of a guitar is 80 cm long and has a fundamental frequency of 112 Hz. If a guitarist wishes to produce a frequency of 160 Hz, where should the person press the string?
Speed of sound wave in air ______.
If c is r.m.s. speed of molecules in a gas and v is the speed of sound waves in the gas, show that c/v is constant and independent of temperature for all diatomic gases.
Given below are some functions of x and t to represent the displacement of an elastic wave.
- y = 5 cos (4x) sin (20t)
- y = 4 sin (5x – t/2) + 3 cos (5x – t/2)
- y = 10 cos [(252 – 250) πt] cos [(252 + 250)πt]
- y = 100 cos (100πt + 0.5x)
State which of these represent
- a travelling wave along –x direction
- a stationary wave
- beats
- a travelling wave along +x direction.
Given reasons for your answers.
Two perfectly identical wires kept under tension are in unison. When the tension in the wire is increased by 1% then on sounding them together 3 beats are heard in 2 seconds. What is the frequency of each wire?
