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34 LONGITUDINAL VIBRATIONS. [I. § 17.
their proper positions in a and a, the less abrupt will be the changes of distance between neighbouring |
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particles. By indefinitely increasing the number of vibrating particles, we should ultimately arrive at a state of things in which perfectly continuous changes of shortening and lengthening intervened between the positions of maximum shortening and maximum lengthening in the same wave.
17. Let us now replace our row of indefinitely numerous, but mutually unconnected, particles by the slenderest filament of some material whose parts (like those of an elastic string) admit of being compressed or dilated at pleasure. When any portion of the filament is shortened, a larger quanÂtity of material is forced into the space which was before occupied by a smaller quantity. The matter within this space is therefore more tightly packed, more dense, than it was, i.e. a process of condu |
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