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Stationary waves and harmonics

From what I understand what a stationary wave is, it is when two progressive waves with the same frequency travel in opposite direction and superpose. They have no net energy transfer. But what has harmonic or fundamental frequency got to do with stationary wave? Has it got to do with number of nodes or antinodes (more harmonics means more nodes or antinodes)?????? Can someone explain.
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Original post by random???
From what I understand what a stationary wave is, it is when two progressive waves with the same frequency travel in opposite direction and superpose. They have no net energy transfer. But what has harmonic or fundamental frequency got to do with stationary wave? Has it got to do with number of nodes or antinodes (more harmonics means more nodes or antinodes)?????? Can someone explain.


The "harmonic" of a stationary wave is how many antinodes it has.

A wave vibrating in its first harmonic (also said to be vibrating at its fundamental frequency) will have two nodes and one antinode.

A wave vibrating in its second harmonic will have three nodes and two antinodes, and so on.

A wave's frequency in its second harmonic is double that of the first (twice the fundamental frequency, in other words), in the third harmonic it is triple the fundamental frequency, and so on.

Hopefully that's cleared up a few things :smile:
Moved to Physics :smile:

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