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Standing waves

Higher harmonics for 2 fixed ends


One can easily understand the result of the previous page when one considers that all waves which are reflected at the righthand side of the cord have the same shape as the incoming wave, whereas all waves which are reflected at the lefthand side of the cord have the same shape as the the first reflected wave.
So, we can restrict ourselves to the case of one wave moving from the right to the left with speed v interfering with one wave moving from the left to the right with speed -v.
The displacement of a point at distance x from the left end of the cord at the instant t is given by the sum of the displacements of each of the two waves separately.

u(x,t) = uleft(x,t) + uright(x,t)

u(x,t) = A sin(k(vt-x)) + A sin(k(-vt-x))

u(x,t) = A sin(k(vt-x)) - A sin(k(vt+x))

u(x,t) = A sin(ωt-kx) - A sin(ωt+kx)

u(x,t) = - 2A sin(kx) cos(ωt)




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