Rubber Rope

This rope is commonly used to demonstrate the properties of transverse waves. The rubber rope can be fastened to a vertical rod and stretched by hand. A single pulse or a short train of pulses can be sent down the rope by rapid hand motion.

By increasing the tension, the instructor can show the increase in wave velocity. Vertical or horizontal hand motion can launch vertically or horizontally polarized waves.

Properties of polarizers can be demontrated by shooting wave pulses of random orientation through a vertical grating (as shown above). Waves polarized at, say 45 degrees, will be partialy transmitted with (more or less) vertical polarization. Due to friction of the rope against the rods, the demonstration of the partial transmission is not perfect, but illustrative.