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Learning Introductory Physics with Activities

Paul J. Emigh, Rebecka Tumblin, Kathryn Hadley, Danielle Skinner

Section 18.6 Boundary Discontinuities

The image below shows a wave pulse moving from left to right in two different situations: from a region with high density to a region with low density (top) and from a region with low density to a region with high density (bottom).
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Figure 18.6.1. A wave pulse approaches a boundary between two strings in two different configurations.
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Subsubsection Activities

Activity 18.6.1.

Predict what you think will happen after the wave pulse reaches the boundary in the top experiment.
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Answer.
Figure 18.6.2. A wave encountering a discontinuity from a high density to a low density.
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Activity 18.6.2.

Predict what you think will happen after the wave pulse reaches the boundary in the bottom experiment.
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Answer.
Figure 18.6.3. A wave encountering a discontinuity from a low density to a high density.
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References References

[1]
Animations courtesy of Dr. Dan Russell, Grad. Prog. Acoustics, Penn State. licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. For more information see https://www.acs.psu.edu/drussell/demos.html
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