Melde's Appratus

Melde's Appratus
To determine the frequency of electrically maintained tuning fork by means of Melde’s apparatus in longitudinal and transverse mode of vibration

Scale pan with hook to carry weights for tensioning the cord.
This compact and robust instrument can be free standing on the bench, clamped to a bench,
or supported horizontally or vertically from a retort stand. It is used for the lateral vibration
of a cord at 50Hz or 60Hz frequency for experiments in standing waves and resonance.
When used normally, the cord is tensioned by passing it over a pulley mounted at the edge of
the bench and attaching the cord to a scale pan. Adding weights to the pan increases the
tension in the cord. The active length of the cord is simply adjusted by moving the
instrument on the bench relative to the position of the pulley clamped to the edge of the
bench.

If the unit is supported on a retort stand so the cord hangs vertically from the vibrator, a
pulley is not required and a normal weight hanger can be attached directly to the end of the
cord. Mounting the unit vertically makes adjustment of the cord length more difficult, but it
demonstrates the various reactions at the weight end of the cord.
Depending on how the unit is supported (see the illustrations), the cord can be made to
vibrate in any plane and therefore can be
viewed by students from various directions

Longitudinal mode- In this arrangement the tuning fork is set in such a manner that the vibrations of the prongs are parallel to the length of the string.

Transverse mode - In this arrangement the vibration of the prongs of the tuning fork are in the direction perpendicular to the length of the string.

Selecting Tuning fork - There are five tuning forks with different frequencies. One can choose any one of the tuning forks to carry out the experiment.

Select Environment- This is used to select the environment to carry out the experiment.