Editing Franz Melde

{{Short description|German physicist and professor}}
[[Image:Standing wave.gif|thumb|Standing waves, in which each immobile point represents a node.]]
<!--[[File:Standing waves on a string.gif|thumb|Each [[overtone]] of a string is a standing wave]]-->

'''Franz Emil Melde''' (March 11, 1832, in [[Großenlüder]] near Fulda – March 17, 1901, in [[Marburg]]) was a German [[physicist]] and [[professor]]. A graduate of the [[University of Marburg]] under [[Christian Ludwig Gerling]], he later taught there, focusing primarily on [[acoustics]],<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=8KUOAAAAIAAJ&dq=franz+melde+standing+wave&pg=PA125 Physical Review]</ref> also making contributions to fields including [[fluid mechanics]] and [[meteorology]]. He began in 1860 as Gerling's assistant at the University's Mathematical and Physical Institute, succeeding him in 1864.

[[Standing wave]]s were first discovered by Melde, who coined the term "standing wave" (''stehende Welle'') around 1860.<ref>Melde, Franz. Ueber einige krumme Flächen, welche von Ebenen, parallel einer bestimmten Ebene, durchschnitten, als Durchschnittsfigur einen Kegelschnitt liefern: Inaugural-Dissertation... Koch, 1859.</ref><ref>Melde, Franz. "Ueber die Erregung stehender Wellen eines fadenförmigen Körpers." Annalen der Physik 185, no. 2 (1860): 193-215.</ref><ref>Melde, Franz. Die Lehre von den Schwingungscurven...: mit einem Atlas von 11 Tafeln in Steindruck. JA Barth, 1864.</ref><ref>Melde, Franz. "Akustische Experimentaluntersuchungen." Annalen der Physik 257, no. 3 (1884): 452-470.</ref> What is known as "[[Melde's experiment]]", "a lecture-room standby",<ref>Beyer, Robert T. (1999). ''Sounds of Our Times: Two Hundred Years of Acoustics'', p.134. Springer. {{ISBN|9780387984353}}.</ref> demonstrates standing waves and their patterns on a [[monochord|string]], is used to measure the speed of [[sine wave|transverse wave]], and to determine the effect of tension, length, and mass on the transverse waves of a [[string vibration|string]]. In 1859 Melde generated [[parametric oscillator|parametric oscillations]] in a string by employing a [[tuning fork]] to periodically vary the tension at twice the [[resonance]] [[frequency]] of the [[monochord]] string.<ref>Melde, F. (1859) "Über Erregung stehender Wellen eines fadenförmigen Körpers" [On the excitation of standing waves on a string], ''Annalen der Physik und Chemie'' (Ser. 2), vol. 109, pages 193-215.</ref><ref>Scott, Alwyn (2006). ''Encyclopedia of Nonlinear Science'', p.683. Routledge. {{ISBN|9781135455583}}. "When the tuning fork vibrates and the string is tight, the string performs transverse oscillations with a frequency equal to half the frequency of the tuning fork.</ref>

He was a member of the [[Landsmannschaft (Studentenverbindung)|Landsmannschaft]] fraternity. In 1885 he was elected to the [[Academy of Sciences Leopoldina]] and in 1893 received a silver medal at the [[World's Columbian Exposition|Chicago Columbian Exposition]].

==Works==
*"Ueber einige krumme Flächen, welche von Ebenen parallel einer bestimmten Ebene durchschmittsfigur einen Kegelschnitt liefern" (thesis, 1859)
*"Über Erregung stehender Wellen eines fadenförmigen Körpers", Poggendorffs Annalen der Physik und Chemie (Serie 2), Bd. 109, 1859, S. 193-215 ["The Production of Standing Waves in Strings"]
*Das Monochord und Farbenspectrum [The Monochord and Color Spectrum] (1864)
*Experimentaluntersuchungen über Blasenbildung im Kreisförmig cylindrischen Röhren [Experimental studies of bubble formation in the Circular cylindrical tubes] (1868)
*''Akustik: Fundamentalerscheinungen und Gesetze Einfach Tönender Körper'' (acoustics textbook, 1883)
*''Measurement of Time'' [''Theorie und Praxis der astronomischen Zeitbestimmung''] (1876)
*''[[Ernst Chladni|Chladni]]'s Lebe und Wirken'' [''Chladni's Life and Work''] (1888)
*"Die wolkenlosen Tage, beobachtet in den Jahren 1866 bis 1894 an der meteorologischen Station Marburg" ["Cloudless Days observed at the Meteorological Station at Marburg during the years 1886-1894"] (1895)
*Estimation of the Upper Limit of Audibility

==References==
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{{Acoustics}}

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[[Category:1832 births]]
[[Category:1901 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century German physicists]]
[[Category:University of Marburg alumni]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the University of Marburg]]