Module 7—Oscillatory Motion

Lesson 1—Simple Harmonic Motion of a Weighted Spring

 

Get Focused

 

A photograph shows an electronic guitar, including the body of the guitar and the neck of the guitar.

© Roman Krochuk/shutterstock

The guitar in this photo has several oscillating, or vibrating, strings. Each string will vibrate with a specific frequency once disturbed by the person playing it. When you hear different strings vibrating with different frequencies, you hear distinctive sounds. There are three ways to make different pitches on a guitar—you can vibrate different strings; you can change the length of the strings by pressing your fingers down on the frets (thin metal strips embedded on the fret board, seen in the foreground of the photo); or you can change the sound by “tuning” or adjusting the tuning screws at the end of the guitar neck. The third method changes the tension in the strings, causing them to vibrate with a different frequency.

 

Merely causing strings to vibrate does not always produce a pleasant sound. However, vibrating just the right strings, that are at just the right length, with just the right tension, can be music to your ears. All three methods for producing various sounds are related by one simple concept—simple harmonic motion.

 

In this lesson and the accompanying lab, you will investigate the following questions:

Module 7: Lesson 1 Assignments

 

Your teacher-marked Module 7: Lesson 1 Assignment requires you to submit a response to the following:

The other questions in this lesson are not marked by the teacher; however, you should still answer these questions. The Self-Check and Try This questions are placed in this lesson to help you review important information and build key concepts that may be applied in future lessons.

 

After a discussion with your teacher, you must decide what to do with the questions that are not part of your assignment. For example, you may decide to submit to your teacher the responses to Try This questions that are not marked. You should record the answers to all the questions in this lesson and place those answers in your course folder.