TRANSVERSE STANDING WAVES IN A STRING WITH FREE ENDS

A method to excite and visualize-transverse standing waves on a vibrat ing string with one or both ends free is described. A stretched coil. extension spring serves as the flexible vibrating string. A free end i s achieved by attaching one end to a long thin steel wire that stretch es the spring and thus provides tension with a nearly inertia-free sus pension. The apparatus can be used as a qualitative lecture demonstrat ion or as a quantitative experiment where it can serve as an instructi ve example of the application of boundary conditions. (C) 1997 America n Association of Physics Teachers.