EP225 2009 Lecture 17

Energy in Standing Waves

Standing waves are formed by sisuoidal waves propagating in opposite directions and
thus no enenrgy is carried. Rather, energy is conned between nodes (zero displacement
points). We consider a standing wave
:
0
sin (/r) cos (.t) . 0 < r < 1
in a string of length 1. mass desnity j
l
(kg/m) and tension 1 (N). The wave lengths allowed
are \
n
= :12 and /
n
= 4::1 where : is integer. The wave velocity is
c
w
=
s
1
j
l
m/s
The kinetic energy density is
KED =
1
2
j
l

:
t

2
=
1
2
j
l
.
2
:
2
0
sin
2
(/r) sin
2
(.t) J/m
Its spatial average is
1
2
peak =
1
4
j
l
.
2
:
2
0
sin
2
(.t)
and the total kinetic energy is
KE =
1
4
1j
l
.
2
:
2
0
sin
2
(.t)
The potential energy density is
PED =
1
2
1

:
r

2
(N = J/m)
=
1
2
1/
2
:
2
0
cos
2
(/r) cos
2
(.t)
=
1
2
j
l
.
2
:
2
0
cos
2
(/r) cos
2
(.t)
The spatial average is
1
4
j
l
.
2
:
2
0
cos
2
(.t)
and the total potential energy is
PE =
1
4
1j
l
.
2
:
2
0
cos
2
(.t)
The total energy is
1
4
1j
l
.
2
:
2
0
sin
2
(.t) +
1
4
1j
l
.
2
:
2
0
cos
2
(.t) =
1
4
1j
l
.
2
:
2
0
(J)
Beat
1
When two sinusoidla signals with slightly dierent fequencies 1 and 1 + 1 are super-
posed, the amlitude is modulated and a beat with a frequency 1 is detected.
sin(2:1t) + sin [2: (1 + 1) t]
= 2sin

2:
1 + 1
2
t

cos

2:
1
2
t

' 2sin(2:1t) cos

2:
1
2
t

The signal intensity is

4
2
sin
2
(2:1t) cos
2

2:
1
2
t

= 2
2
sin
2
(2:1t) [1 + cos (2:1t)]
where use is made of
cos
2
r =
1 + cos 2r
2
The intensity is modulated at the frequncy dierence 1 . The gure below shows addition
of waves with frequencies 10 Hz and 11 Hz.
sin (2: 10t)
0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0
-1
0
1
x
y
sin (2: 11t)
0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0
-1
0
1
x
y
sin (2: 10t) + sin (2: 11t)
0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0
-2
-1
0
1
2
t
y
2
Phase and Group Velocities
Super position of two waves having slightly dierent frequencies and wavenumbers
sin (/r .t) + sin [(/ + /) r (. + .) t]
' 2(/r .t) cos

/
2
r
.
2
t

Fine ripples propagate at

Phase velocity
.
/
The envelope propagates at
Group velocity
.
/
!
d.
d/
In non-dispersive waves, t/c phase and group velocities are the same. Examples are light
wave in vacuum, sound waves. Examples of dispersive waves:
Water wave . =
p
o/.
.
/
=
r
o
/
.
d.
d/
=
1
2
r
o
/
Electromagnetic waves in plasma .
2
= (c/)
2
+ .
2
p
.
/
= c
1
q
1

.
2
p
.
2

c;
d.
d/
= c
q
1

.
2
p
.
2

< c
Sound Waves in a Gas
When a gas is compressed, the density increases. At the same time, the temperature
increases adiabatically because thermal conduction in a gas is slow. The equation of state is
1\

= const.
where is the ratio of specic heats,
=
1 + 2
1
with 1 the number of degree of freedom. For monoatomic gases (He, Ar, etc.) 1 = 3 and
=
5
3
. For diatomic gases, 1 = 5 and =
7
5
.
Equation of state is
d1\

+ 1\
1
= 0
1
1
=
\
\
Then the pressure wave is
j = 1
:
r
and the equation of motion is
j
v

2
:
t
2
=

r
j = 1

2
:
r
2
3
The sound speed is given by
c
s
=
s
1
j
v
=
r
11
`
mol
where 1 = 8.3 J/K is the gas constant and `
mol
is the molar mass of the gas. The molar
mass of air is 0.029 kg. Note that the sound speed is independent of the gas density. At
20

C, the sound speed is

c
s
=
r
1.4 8.3 293
0.029
= 343 m/s
Doppler shift
Doppler eect is apparent change in the frequency (or wavelength) due to the motion of
sound source and observer. If the source is moving, the wavelength changes,
\
0
=
c
s
\
s
c
s
\. 1
0
=
c
s
c
s
\
s
1
Waves in front of the source are squeezed (shorter wavelength ! higher frequency).
If the observer is moving, the sound speed changes from c
s
to c
s
+ \
o
. Then
1
00
=
c
s
+ \
o
c
s
1
4