Standing Waves and Resonance

Standing Waves can resonate in a pipe. The resonance occurs in an open-closed pipe when an odd integer number of quarter wavelengths fit exactly in the length of the cavity of the pipe. This animation illustrates what happens when a plunger is used to "scan" the effective length of a pipe driven by a tuning fork. Three different cases are shown for a set of increasing frequencies.
 

Standing Waves and Harmonics

The harmonic frequencies of a system depend upon the geometry of that system. This animation shows the first five harmonics for both a pipe closed at both ends as well as a pipe open at one end. The animation ends with a wave which is actually comprised of a combination of those first five harmonics for each system.

 

Motion of Electric Charges in a Uniform Magnetic Field

This animation portrays the motion of an electric charge in a uniform magnetic field. Starting with the special case where the initial motion is perpendicular to the magnetic field, we see that the motion is circular. The frequency of this circular motion (the cyclotron frequency) does not depend upon the speed of the charge. When generalizing the charge's motion to the full 3-D case, we see that the charge's will spiral along (and around) magnetic field lines.

 

Galileo and Motion

Galileo studied the motion of objects rolling down an inclined plane, and made note of patterns in those motions which he extrapolated to the motion of falling objects.

Other animations by Penn State Schuylkill

An Application of Faraday's Law of Induction

This is an illustration of an application of Faraday's Law to a single loop moving through a magnetic field.

Other animations by Penn State Schuylkill

Expansion of the Universe and Red Shift of Cosmic Background

As the universe expands (represented by the expanding balloon) the cosmic background (represented by the wavy line) gets stretched out to longer and longer wavelengths (distance between peaks on the wavy line).

Other animations by Penn State Schuylkill

3 Phase Rectifying Circuit

This animation shows the flow of current in 3-phase AC to DC rectification circuit, a well as a plot of the three input currents and the output current.

Other animations by Penn State Schuylkill

Field Lines in a Toroidal Solenoid

This animation illustrates the magnetic field lines created by a series of loops that form a torus. The animation shows how increasing number of current loops confines the magnetic field to the interior of the torus.

Other animations by Penn State Schuylkill

Gravitational Lensing

This animation illustrates how the curvature of space-time produces a focusing effect on light called a gravitational lens.

Other animations by Penn State Schuylkill

Lenz's Law

This is a short animation which depicts Lenz's Law and how changing magnetic flux creates an induced current.

Other animations by Penn State Schuylkill

1D Standing Wave Patterns

This animation shows an assortment of standing wave patterns under varied boundary conditions.

Other animations by Penn State Schuylkill

The Reason for the Seasons

Seasons are created by the position of the Sun relative to the orientation of the Earth's rotation axis. As the Earth orbits the Sun, this relative position changes.

Source: Penn State Schylkill

Other animations by Penn State Schuylkill

Boundary Conditions on a String

If the end of the string is fixed (hard reflection), the reflected impulse is reversed. If the end of the string is free to move (soft reflection), the reflected impulse is not reversed.

Other animations by Penn State Schuylkill

X-Ray interactions

This animation illustrates the five primary mechanisms by which high energy photons interact with matter:  coherent scattering, Compton effect, photoelectric effect, pair production and photodisintegration.

Other animations by Penn State Schuylkill

Uncompressible Flow and Fluid Velocity

The flow velocity of an uncompressible fluid is determined by the area of the pipe it is flowing through. The more constricted the pipe, the faster the fluid flows (continuity equation).

Other animations by Penn State Schuylkill

Transverse and Longitudinal Waves

This animation depicts Transverse and Longitudinal waves on a spring.

Other animations by Penn State Schuylkill

Car on a Banked Track

The forces acting on a car undergoing circular motion on a banked track are illustrated from variety of viewpoints.

Other animations by Penn State Schuylkill

Kinematics in 2D

This animation illustrates the role of acceleration in 2D kinematics. The parallel component of acceleration (relative to velocity) speeds and slows the object while the perpendicular component changes the direction fo the velocity for turns.

Other animations by Penn State Schuylkill

Direct Current versus Alternating Current

Difference between direct current (DC: The electric charge flows in a constant direction) and alternating current (AC:  the motion of charge changes direction periodically).

Other animations by Penn State Schuylkill

Full Wave Rectification with a Diode Bridge

This animation shows the conventional flow of current during full wave rectification using a diode bridge. At the input, the current changes direction periodically. At the output, the current always flow in the same direction.

Other animations by Penn State Schuylkill