CT 2.1.1 CT 2.1.

You get the strobe timed so an object When the amplitude of an oscillating
appears stationary. object is doubled, the period becomes:
What if we speed up the strobe’s
frequency just a little? a) twice as big
a) The object still staying stationary b) 1/2 as big
b) The object alternating back and forth
c) Stays the same
between two extremes
c) The object moving forwards
d) 1/4 times as big
d) The object moving backwards e) Not enough information to decide
Answer: Changing the amplitude of a wave does
e) Can’t really guess nothing to its period.
When
Answer: By increasing the strobe’s frequency just a
the frequency is doubled,
little, you then see the object a little earlier then the period becomes…
you previously did. Each flash, you see the
object just before it gets to where thing appear Answer: The relationship between frequency and
stationary, so the object appears to be going period is
backwards. (What do you think you would see if f=1/T
you continued to increase the frequency? )
Doubling f means that T must be cut in half

CT 2.1.4
CT 2.1.3

If I lower the frequency of this tone what A vibration has a frequency of 100
happens to the pitch? cycles/second, what is the period (or the
amount of time for one cycle)?
a) It decreases
a) 100 sec
b) It increases
b) 1 sec
c) It remains the same
d) Not enough information c) 10 msec
d) 100 msec
Answer: Frequency is predominately what
e) None of these
determines pitch, so lowering the frequency also
lowers the pitch Answer: The relationship between frequency and
period is:

What if I make the same sound louder f=1/T  T=1/f

(keeping the same pitch), = 1 / 100 Hz

the frequency… = 0.01 sec = 10 msec

(Can you do this conversion? If not ask or find
Answer: making the sound louder (or increasing the
out how)
amplitude) does nothing to the frequency or pitch
Is this tone audible? If so, is it high or low?

Answer: 100 Hz is low frequency, but easily audible

100 Hz is in a base singer’s range

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 CT 2.1.5 CT 2.1.6

You are standing outside playing a recorder*

at a steady, perfect “concert A” (that’s 440
Hz, i.e. during one second 440 Speed = wavelength*frequency
compressions of air move outwards). v=λf
What is the approximate wavelength of the
sound wave produced? The air warms up by 20o C. It turns out that
(Data: the speed of sound is 344 m/s) this instrument (like most wind instruments)
produces sound waves of a particular
a) a few mm
wavelength.
b) about half a km So, changing the temperature will not
c) A little over one meter
change the wavelength of sound waves
produced by this instrument (noticeably.)
d) A little under one meter
e) None of the above
What will change?
a) Frequency
Answer: We expect that the wavelength will be b) Speed
about the same size scale as the instrument. c) Both
Answer: Air temperature changes sound speed. If v
For an exact answer: d)isNeither
allowed to change, but λ is not, then f must
v=λf  λ= v/ f e)change
?? too in order to keep the equation
balanced. It’s not ALWAYS true that λ is fixed
= (344 m/s) / (440 Hz) (you have to think about the physics of the
= 0.78 m instrument, we’ll talk more about this!), so this
answer is not universal.

CT 2.1.7 CT 2.1.8

We know that pressure changes (as time Looking at the following waveform, what
goes by) for sound waves. is the period?
What changes (as time goes by) for gentle
water waves on a pond? Amplitude

a) The water density

b) The water temperature
c) The water level or height
1 2 time (sec)
d) The water molecules’ position in the
direction of wave propagation
e) Nothing about water waves vary with time
a) 1 sec
Answer: A water wave is a transverse wave. The
water on the surface moves up and down as the b) 2 sec
wave moves across. c) 1 m/s
d) 2 m/s
e)Not enough information

Answer: The period is the amount of time that it

takes for the wave to make 1 complete cycle.
This takes 2 sec. in the picture

2
 CT 2.1.9
CT 2.1.10

Looking at that same wave (shown again The wavelength, λ, is 10 m. What is the
below), what is its speed? speed of this wave?

Amplitude Amplitude

Time (sec)
1 2 Time (sec)
1

a) 1/2 m/s a) 1 m/s

b) 2 m/s b) 7 m/s
c) 5 m/s c) 10 m/s
d) 20 m/s d) 15 m/s
e) Not enough information e) None of the above/not enough info?
Answer: we need to know the wavelength too
Answer: The wave repeats itself 1.5 times in 1
Now given that λ=10 m what is the speed of second, so the frequency is:
the wave? f = (1.5 cycles) / (1 second) = 1.5 Hz
Answer: The wave speed is: The wave speed is then:
v = λ.f = (10 m).(1 cycle / 2 sec) = 5 m/s v = λ.f = (10 m).(1.5 Hz) = 15 m/s

CT 2.2.1 CT 2.2.2

An oscilloscope presents a graphical You do not need to know this, but if you are
curious…
representation of:
What is the difference between the pink
and green lines?
a) Amplitude vs. Position
b) Wavelength vs. Time
c) Voltage vs. Position
d) Voltage vs. Time
Amplitude

e) Wavelength vs Amplitude

Answer: An oscilloscope measure and plots the

voltage at as a function of time. Also, if you time
connect a microphone to the scope, then the a) Frequency
voltage is proportional to the air pressure (also b) Amplitude
referred to as the amplitude of the sound wave..) c) Period
d) Phase
e) Something else

Answer: Both curves have the same amplitude,

wavelength frequency and period. They are just
out of phase with one another.

3
 CT 2.2.3
What is the period of this wave? CT 2.2.4

Amp
What is the period?

Amp
t=0 t1 t2
time
0 time
t1 t2 t3

a) t1
b) t2
c) Not at all defined a) t1
d) Not well defined, but t1 is the best b) t2
answer c) t2-t1
e) Not well defined, but t2 is the best d) t3-t1
answer
e) None of the above
Answer: This is not a periodic wave, so technically the
period is not well defined, but because the wave
damps just a little, t1 is a reasonable value for a Answer: The wave is exactly the same at t1 and t3,
period. Also, the longer that t2 gets compared to t1, so the difference in these times must be the
the more this will look periodic, and the more well period. The wave “repeats” everything that it
defined the answer is (and, it’s t1!)
did between t1 and t3.

CT 2.4.1 CT 2.4.2

Which of the following is necessary to make

an object oscillate? The mass and spring shown below are in
equilibrium, a brief downward force is applied
to the mass to put the object into oscillation,
i. A stable equilibrium in what direction is the restoring force?
ii. Little or no friction
iii. A disturbance

a) i. only
b) ii. Only
c) iii. Only
d) i and iii only equilibrium
m
e) all three
a) Down
Answer: There must be an equilibrium which the b) Up
system tries to approach, also, having no friction c) Zero moving
leaves no place for energy to be lost or radiated, m down
d) Some other direction
and a disturbance sets the system in motion e) Not enough information
Given the above, will the motion be “Simple Harmonic
Motion”? Answer: pulling the mass down below its equilibrium
Answer: The motion may not necessarily be Simple makes the spring pull up in an attempt to restore
Harmonic Motion even if the three criteria from equilibrium
above are satisfied.

4
 CT 2.4.3

Looking at the same spring and mass

scenario; the spring is stretched and
released. After a moment, when the mass
is on its way up, what is the restoring force?

equilibrium

moving
a) Down m up
b) Up
c) Right m
d) Left Answer: When the cart is at M it is instantaneously
e) Some other direction stopped and the spring is fully compressed.
The car and spring are not moving, so there is
Answer: The mass is still below equilibrium, so the no kinetic energy and since the spring is
spring pulls it up completely compressed, all of the energy is
stored as potential energy in the spring.

Answer: When the string is maximally stretched, it is

instantaneously at rest, so it has no kinetic
energy. Since the string is stretched and not
Answer: When the cart is at E the spring is in
moving it contains only potential energy.
equilibrium so it is neither compressed nor
stretched. The spring holds no potential energy.
The car, however, is moving to the right, so all
of its energy is kinetic energy.

5

Answer: When you are in the plane and not falling all of
Answer: At the instant that the string is flat, it is
moving through its equilibrium position. There
is no potential energy in the spring because it is
at equilibrium, (not stretched, no stored or
potential energy!) but because it is moving, all
the energy is purely kinetic, which is “energy of
motion”.
CT 2.4.5
Freq. = (constant) * √ ( K/m)
A mass on a spring oscillates with a
certain amplitude and a certain
frequency. If the mass is replaced
with one 4 times heavier, what
happens to the frequency…
A doubles
B: increases by 4
C: halves.
D: decreases by 4
E: None of these/not sure
Answer: Replacing m with 4m gives
Fnew = (const).√ ( K/4m) = (const).(1/2).√ ( K/m) =
(1/2).f
What happens to the period?
Answer: doubling K and m together means that
Answer: The period is
√ ( K/m)  √ ( 2.K/2.m) = √ ( K/m)
Tnew =1/ fnew = 1/ [(1/2).f] = 2.(1 / f) = 2 T
CT 2.4.4
You are going skydiving. While you are free
falling what is happening to the energy in the
system?
a) Potential energy is being transferred to
kinetic energy
b) Kinetic energy is being transferred to
Potential energy
c) The total energy of the system is decreasing
d) The total energy of the system is increasing
e) ??
your energy is potential energy since you are so
high. (We are neglecting the SIDEWAYS motion -
you do have some kinetic energy because of that.
Let’s imagine we’re jumping out of a stationary
balloon so we can ignore that!) Once you jump and
begin losing altitude, you pick up speed and gain
kinetic energy. Conservation of energy tells us that
no energy is ever lost or gained, all that’s happening
is a steady conversion of (gravitational) potential
energy into kinetic energy. If air drag gets big, you
are instead converting the potential energy into
THERMAL energy, as you stop speeding up.
CT 2.4.6
F = (constant) * √ ( K/m)
A mass on a spring oscillates with a
certain amplitude and a certain
period T. If the mass is doubled, the
spring constant of the spring is
doubled, and the amplitude of
motion is doubled, the period ..
A: increases
B: decreases
C: stays the same.
D: Not enough information to decide
no change
cancel the 2s