In our classes we will only study waves which propagate in a medium.
Usually, we will study waves in a cord,
but then apply the results of our study to different media.
One application will be to sound, musical instruments
and the Doppler effect.
An important assumption
which we will make in our future studies is,
that the speed of waves in the same medium
does NOT depend
on the amplitude,
NEITHER
on the frequency
for small displacements.
This implies that in the formula
vT=λ
the speed v
is a constant for a given medium.
Consequently, when we vary the period T,
then the wave length λ
varies accordingly.
The frequency f of the oscillatory movements is
related
to the period by f=1/T.
We may thus modify our formula to something which can be more easily
memorized.
v × T = λ
→
v = f × λ
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