Advertisements
Advertisements
Question
What are mechanical waves?
Advertisements
Solution
The waves which travel in the medium through the vibrations of the medium particles about their mean positions are called mechanical waves.
APPEARS IN
RELATED QUESTIONS
The diagram above shows a wire stretched over a sonometer. Stems of two vibrating tuning forks A and Bare touched to the wooden box of the sonometer. It is observed that the paper rider (a small piece of paper folded at the centre) present on the wire flies off when the stem of vibrating tuning fork B is touched to the wooden box but the paper just vibrates when the stem of vibrating tuning fork A is touched to the wooden box.
1) Name the phenomenon when the paper rider just vibrates.
2) Name the phenomenon when the paper rider flies off.
3) Why does the paper rider fly off when the stem of tuning fork B is touched to the box?
Distinguish between the free (or natural) and forced vibrations.
Describe a simple experiment to illustrate the phenomenon of resonance and explain it.
A vibrating tuning fork, held over an air column of a given length with its one end closed, produces a loud audible sound. Name the phenomenon responsible for it and explain the observation.
In following figure shows A, B , C and D represent test tube each of height 20 cm which are filled with water up to heights of 12 cm, 14 cm, 16cm and 18cm respectively. If a vibrating tuning fork is placed over the mouth if test tube D, a loud sound is heard.
- Describe the observations with the tubes A, B and C when the vibrating tuning fork is placed over the mouth of these tubes.
- Give the reason for your observation in each case.
- State the principle illustrated by the above experiment.
When a troop crosses a suspension bridge, the soldiers are asked to break steps. Explain the reason.
The diagram below shows three different modes of vibration P, Q and R of the same string of a given length.
 |
 |
 |
| P | Q | R |
- Which vibration will produce a louder sound and why?
- Which vibration will produce sound of maximum shrillness (or pitch) and why?
- What is the ratio of wavelength of vibrations P and R?
Explain why stringed musical instruments, like the guitar, are provided with a hollow box.
The rearview mirror of a motorbike starts vibrating violently at some particular speed of the motorbike, what could be done to stop the violent vibrations.
Explain a person walking past a railway line, in the middle of night hears a ringing sound along with the sound of his footsteps.
