Waves on a slinky sim
A wave carries energy along the slinky without carrying the slinky with it: watch the red coil move to and fro about its own place while the wave passes.
Waves on a slinky · covers the GCSE, IGCSE, O-Level topic
What the sim shows
A wave carries energy along the slinky without carrying the slinky with it: watch the red coil move to and fro about its own place while the wave passes. In a transverse wave the coils move at right angles to the way the wave travels (here up and down); in a longitudinal wave they move to and fro along it, making compressions and rarefactions. The wave travels at 2 m/s whatever the frequency. Shake faster and the waves come closer together: wavelength = speed ÷ frequency, so v = f λ. At 2 Hz, λ = 2 ÷ 2 = 1.0 m. The period T = 1 ÷ f is the time for one full to-and-fro of the red coil. The foam block soaks up the wave so none comes back.
- The red coil stays near home
- Below: shape now, and the red coil over time
Use it in your lessons
- Try it here: anyone can unlock 2 figures free, and a free account unlocks up to 5. Runs on a laptop, a Chromebook or a phone; nothing to install.
- Present it and share student links with the teacher plan, from US$5 a month, billed yearly.
- Put it on your own website or LMS for US$9, paid once, or every sim from US$29 a month.
Free guide: 12 practicals as sims, and how to run one in a lesson →
Need a version for your exact set-up? Have one made: US$49 a figure in an order of 5.
More physics sims
- Stability and toppling simTilt a hinged board with a model bus, a bottle of sand or a wooden cone on it and watch the weight line from G leave the base as it topples; then measure the toppling angle of six wooden blocks on the protractor and plot tan θ against (b ÷ 2) ÷ h.
- States of matter: the particle model simDrag a heater slider to take 50 g of ice to water to steam and back while a magnified box shows its particles go from a vibrating lattice, to sliding past each other, to flying apart and hitting the walls; record the heating curve with its flat parts, then squash sealed syringes of air, water and wax.
- Three forces in equilibrium: the triangle of forces simHang a load from two newton-meters, read the tensions and the angles, then draw the closed triangle of forces to scale and check it against the meters.
- U-tube manometer simJoin a U-tube manometer to the gas tap, a flask squeezed by a syringe or your own breath, read both levels to the nearest mm, find h and work out Δp = ρgh and the gas's pressure, then swap the water for oil or mercury and widen one arm to see what changes.
- Walk the graph: match a motion graph by walking simWalk in front of a motion sensor so your displacement–time, velocity–time, distance–time or speed–time line matches a target, then measure it with the gradient and area tools.
- Work done and power simDrag a newton-meter to pull a box along the bench and lift a load up steps, read the force and the distance moved in its direction to find W = F × d, then weigh a runner, count the stairs and time them walking and running to find their power P = W ÷ t.