Standing wave
13
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4
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Search complete. 13 mentions across 4 episodes found for "Standing wave".
Oct 18, 2026
Dave FarinaHOST
Professor Dave here, let's discuss standing waves.
speaker_1UNKNOWN
He knows a lot about the science stuff.
speaker_1UNKNOWN
Professor Dave explains.
Dave FarinaHOST
Some waves are confined between two fixed boundaries, like on a plucked string, where they will experience repeated reflections at both ends of the string, resulting in a multitude of wave cycles traveling in both directions.
Dave FarinaHOST
If this vibration is of a particular frequency, it will produce an interference pattern that appears to be a completely stationary wave.
Dave FarinaHOST
These are called transverse standing waves.
Dave FarinaHOST
These kinds of waves can only have particular frequencies for strings of a given length, because they can only have integer numbers of half wavelengths, since the waves must return to zero amplitude at both boundaries.
Dave FarinaHOST
If the number of half wavelengths was not an integer, the wave couldn't exist.
Michael RussellHOST
This is called a standing wave because the wave doesn't move.
Michael RussellHOST
So at the ocean, you have moving waves, transverse waves, and that's a different kind of wave that has a lot of cool uses as well.
Michael RussellHOST
But in what we're talking about, we're gonna talk about standing waves.
Michael RussellHOST
Now, what usually happens, if you look at the animation on the right, is at that midpoint, that's gonna be the nucleus, and the waves will represent electrons and stuff like that running around it.
Michael RussellHOST
So just realize that that node is gonna be a place where the electrons are probably hanging out, and there can be different amounts of waves and frequencies, et cetera, et cetera, going through.
Michael RussellHOST
So imagine that you and I have a rope and we're each holding on to the rope with one hand.
Michael RussellHOST
and we start to shake the rope all right well the rope itself will go up and down like those people like the person they're holding the rope will so you can have waves and wavelengths and frequencies depending on how hard we would move the rope up and down this is called a standing wave because the wave doesn't move so at the ocean you have moving waves transverse waves and And that's a different kind of wave that has a lot of cool uses as well.
Michael RussellHOST
But in what we're talking about, we're going to talk about standing waves.
Michael RussellHOST
Now, what usually happens if you look at the animation on the right is that that midpoint, that's going to be the nucleus and the waves will represent electrons and stuff like that running around it.
Michael RussellHOST
So just realize that that node is going to be a place where the electrons are probably hanging out and there can be different amounts of waves and frequencies, et cetera, et cetera, going through.