Question

A guitar string 75.0cm in length is strung to play the note C at a frequency of 880Hz as it 3rd harmonic.
a.) what is the length of the transverse wave on the guitar string?
b) what is the speed of this transverse wave along the guitar string?
c.) what is the length of the longitudinal sound wave that travels through the air?

Answer 1

a) There are three half-waves on the string, so the wavelength on the string is 50 cm.

b) Speed = wavelength*frequency

c) Air wavelength
= (Sound speed in air)/frequency
= (340 m/s)/880 Hz = 0.386 m

Answer 2

Thanks for the timely help