A guitar string has a mass of 0.3 kg with a length of 0.45 m (the force of tension on the string is 20 N).

Question

What is the speed of the wave on the guitar string?

Answer 1

Hi Vi D.,

The speed of a wave on a string under tension can be found with the equation |v| = √(F_T/μ) where F_T is the tension in the string, and μ is the mass per length of the string.

In our case F_T = 20 N and μ = 0.3 kg/.45 m = 0.67 kg/m.

|v| = √(20/0.67) = 5.48 m/s

I hope this helped, Joe.