Grammar: Infinitive (forms and functions), страница 6

TEXT 8 C

WAVE MOTION AND SOUND

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Wave Motion. - One of the most important phenomena in nature is the transmission of energy from one point to another by wave motion. This kind of motion is illustrated in many ways. When a stone is dropped into a pool of still water, the surface of the water is covered with circular wavelets which widen out from the central point where the stone fell. The water does not really move outward from the central point, but it rises and then falls again. That such is the case is seen by observing a floating leaf or piece of wood. It does not move forward but returns again and again to its former position. Hence, the water on which the leaf rests must have this same kind of upward and downward motion rather than a forward motion.

When one end of a rope is fastened to a rigid wall the free end moved up and down rapidly, each jerk travels along the rope, each portion of the rope communicating the jerk to the next portion. Each particle of the rope imparts its upward or downward motion to its neighbors. The jerk moves forward, but the particles of the rope move only up and down. Motions of this kind are wave motions, in all these cases it is evident that there is a vibrating center which produces motions in those portions of the medium immediately in contact with it, and that these portions impart their motions to the neighboring portions.

Nature of Sound. - The source of sound is always in a state of vibration. As the vibration dies down, the intensity of the sound diminishes. If a ringing bell is touched with the fingers, the sound ceases because the vibrations are stopped by the fingers. When a weight falls to the floor, the weight as well as that part of the floor which is struck are set in vibration, and sound waves are produced. If a stretched guitar string is plucked, it gives a musical note owing to the vibrations set up in it. These vibrations take place too fast for the eye to follow them, and the string seems to be drawn out into a ribbon in the middle. In a vibrating tuning fork the prongs alternately approach and recede from each other. These movements of the prongs can be felt by touching the prongs with the fingers. They produce compressions and rarefactions in the surrounding air that travel forward as sound waves.