Standing Waves on a Slinky™

Standing waves on a Slinky™ are demonstrated.

Discussion

When waves with the same frequency, but traveling in opposite directions, pass each other they can interfere to create standing waves, so-called because the resulting wave does not appear to move. Ideally, a standing wave oscillates in a stationary envelope, with nodes, points at which wave displacement is zero, and antinodes, points where wave displacement is maximal. In this movie the wave pattern is not quite stationary, because the two demonstrators are not able to generate waves that are always at the same frequency.