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As time goes by the peaks become smaller and the troughs become shallower but they do not move.

For an instant the entire region will look completely flat.

The various points continue their motion in the same manner.

Eventually the picture looks like the complete reflection through the x -axis of what we started with:

Then all the points begin to move back. Each point on the line is oscillating up and down with a different amplitude.

If we look at the overall result, we get a standing wave.

A standing wave

If we superimpose the two cases where the peaks were at a maximum and the case where the same waves were at a minimum we can see thelines that the points oscillate between. We call this the envelope of the standing wave as it contains all the oscillations of the individual points.To make the concept of the envelope clearer let us draw arrows describing the motion of points along the line.

Every point in the medium containing a standing wave oscillates up and down and the amplitude of the oscillations depends on thelocation of the point. It is convenient to draw the envelope for the oscillations to describe the motion. We cannot draw the up and downarrows for every single point!

Interesting fact

Standing waves can be a problem in for example indoor concerts where the dimensions of the concert venue coincide with particular wavelengths. Standing waves can appear as `feedback', which would occur if the standing wave was picked up by the microphones on stage and amplified.

Nodes and anti-nodes

A node is a point on a wave where no displacement takes place at any time. In a standing wave, a node is a place where two waves cancel out completely as the two waves destructively interfere in thesame place. A fixed end of a rope is a node. An anti-node is a point on a wave where maximum displacement takes place. In a standingwave, an anti-node is a place where the two waves constructively interfere. Anti-nodes occur midway between nodes. A free end of a rope is an anti-node.

Node
A node is a point on a standing wave where no displacement takes place at any time. A fixed end of a rope is a node.
Anti-Node
An anti-node is a point on standing a wave where maximum displacement takes place. A free end of a rope is an anti-node.
The distance between two anti-nodes is only 1 2 λ because it is the distance from a peak to a trough in one of the waves forming the standing wave. It is the same as the distance between two adjacent nodes. This will be important when we work out the allowed wavelengths in tubes later. We can take this further because half-way between any two anti-nodes is a node. Then the distance from the node to the anti-node is half the distance between two anti-nodes. This is half of half a wavelength which is one quarter of a wavelength, 1 4 λ .

Wavelengths of standing waves with fixed and free ends

There are many applications which make use of the properties of waves and the use of fixed and free ends. Mostmusical instruments rely on the basic picture that we have presented to create specific sounds,either through standing pressure waves or standing vibratory waves in strings.

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Source:  OpenStax, Physics - grade 10 [caps 2011]. OpenStax CNX. Jun 14, 2011 Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col11298/1.3
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