Sunday, September 23, 2007

Stationary sound wave

Nodes and antinodes in stationary wave are detected as pressure change above and below the normal pressure. Consider air molecules to have normal pressure without the sound waves passing throught it. When stationary waves are formed in sound wave , there exist nodes and antinodes. Take a look at the nodes, a particle with no displacement. The particle on its left and right are moving in the opposite direction (180 degrees out of phase). The particle at the node is squashed by its two neighbouring particle. Just imagine standing in a queue and being pushed by someone in front and someone behind you . This point becomes a higher than normal pressure point. At the antinode , even though the displacement is large , it's neighbouring particles are moving in the same direction as the antinode particle but with a smaller displacement. Therefor the pressure change is minimum.