Build a Shive Wave Machine - Project 102

[incegoren]

Hello everyone,
I am taking a course called project 102 which based on doing projects and it its mandatory if you want to study engineering. Even though I want to study Manufacturing Enginnering all projects related to it was taken so i was left with this "Build your shive wave machine" project.
It is basically a wave demonstration machine which actually looks pretty cool. We are supposed to build one with our project group which concludes of 2 people who wants electric electronics and 3 manufacturing. Long story short none of us is thinking or skilled in mechanichs so we need some help doing this machine. We found a video ----> which is very helpful but still we don't know the components of the machie. I even learned SolidWorks a bit if I need to draw to rod but eventually we found out piano strings (?) can bu used for its base. Any help would be appreciated . Also I didn't know which level of physics this goes into so I'm writing it on basic. Sorry if it is in wrong place. Thanks for any help :)

 

[CWatters]

Do some more googling. Lots of ways to make one...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_N._Shive#Shive_wave_machine

The machine consists of 64 horizontal rods welded to an axle torsion bar that is perpendicular to the rods.

http://www.dailybits.com/duct-tape-wave-machine/





Radio Control Model aircraft shops sell piano wire in numerous sizes. Matter of experimenting.

 

[incegoren]

Well this not " THE" Shive Wave Machine, we did some basic models using chopsticks and duct tape but we are supposed to do a fully functional, made out of metal shive wave machine. And we did a lot of googling and we couldn't find much instead of a single article which says that there should be 1.25 cm between rods so we are searching for more academic resources. But still thanks for your help :)

 

[CWatters]

Isn't the whole idea to design it yourself rather than copy an existing design?

The distance between the rods won't be the most critical factor. It will be the mass of the rods and the stiffness of the torsion bar. When I suggested piano wire I meant try that for the center torsion bar as well as the rods. Very cheap and quick to knock up a 1m long prototype or two until you get the wire gauge right.

 

[CWatters]

I don't know if this helps but it has the maths for a slightly different wave making machine ...

http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/sed/staff/Sadler/articles/Wavemaker%20JSET.pdf

See "THE PHYSICS BEHIND WAVEMAKER".

I've long since forgotten how to do the maths myself.

 

[CWatters]

This also looks helpful but I haven't found a free copy..

http://www.deepdyve.com/lp/american...room-torsional-wave-machine-part-i-QwIH3Yx5Zk

Making waves: A classroom torsional wave machine (Part I)
Kenneth D. Skeldon, Janet E. Milne, Alastair I. Grant, and David A. Palmer

Phys. Teach. 36, 466 (1998)

Abstract

We present a recipe for constructing a torsional wave machine and discuss its role as a teaching aid, developing the physics of design and operation as we go along. In this article, which forms the first installment of a two-part paper, we cover the dynamics of the wave machine, concluding with construction details of a machine with theatre-scale presence. In developing the design physics, we allude to many interesting demonstrations and experiments that can be performed; these will form the content of our companion article next month.

 

[incegoren]

Thank you CWatter, technically we are supposed to build different types of wave machines to learn what affects what and how but since we are not interested in mechanics we talked to our project supervisor and he said just give me a fully fuctional model and get an A or work hard give me a half working model and get an A . Your choice. So we decided to try it at first but we really are not into that stuff so we decided to go for the machine to finish the project. Thanks for the help :)