Simulation · Physics · Class 11
Reflection at a fixed end and a free end
From the lesson Reflection and standing waves in Waves. Change the values and watch what happens.
Reflection at a fixed end and a free endPhysics · Class 11
The idea behind it
NCERT §14.6
- A wave that meets a boundary is reflected, as an echo is. At a boundary between two media part of it is reflected and part transmitted; the transmitted part obeys the laws of refraction and the reflected part the laws of reflection.
- Rigid boundary (a string tied to a wall): the end cannot move, so the wall pulls the string the opposite way (Newton's third law). The pulse comes back inverted, a phase change of π. If yi = a sin(kx − ωt), then yr = a sin(kx − ωt + π) = −a sin(kx − ωt).
- Free boundary (a string tied to a ring that slides freely on a rod, or the open end of an organ pipe): the pulse comes back upright, with no phase change, and the displacement at the end becomes twice the pulse's.
- A wave reflected at a boundary overlaps the incoming wave. Two identical waves moving in opposite directions, a sin(kx − ωt) and a sin(kx + ωt), add to y = 2a sin kx cos ωt.
- This is a standing wave: kx and ωt appear separately, so the pattern does not travel. Each point does SHM with its own amplitude 2a sin kx.
- Nodes, where sin kx = 0, never move: x = nλ/2 for n = 0, 1, 2, …
- Antinodes, where |sin kx| = 1, swing with the largest amplitude 2a: x = (n + ½)λ/2.
- Neighbouring nodes are λ/2 apart, and so are neighbouring antinodes; a node and the next antinode are λ/4 apart.
- All particles between two neighbouring nodes move in phase, with different amplitudes; particles on opposite sides of a node are in opposite phase.