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AT&T Archives: Similiarities of Wave Behavior (Bonus Edition)

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  • Recommended by 12 people: 12 on Hacker News.
  • A classic. People kept recommending it from 2014 to 2026.
  • Presented by Dr. J.N. Shive, Bell Labs physicist

Beginner. No background in the topic needed.

473K views14 years ago12 recommendations

HardwareElectronics

Dr. J.N. Shive uses a mechanical wave machine to demonstrate wave reflection, standing waves, resonance, and impedance matching.

For more from the AT&T Archives, visit techchannel.att.com/archives On an elementary conceptual level, this film reflects the multifaceted scientific hyperthinking that was typical of a Bell Labs approach. Host Dr. J.N. Shive's presence as a lecturer is excellent - it's understandable by a layperson even when he branches into equations, because he uses copious amounts of real-world examples to bolster the material. Shive's role at Bell Labs was more than just a great lecturer: he worked on early transistor technology, inventing the phototransistor in 1950, and the machine he uses in the film is his invention, now called the Shive Wave Machine in college classrooms. Dr. J.N. Shive of Bell Labs demonstrates and discusses the following aspects of wave behavior: Reflection of waves from free and clamped ends Superposition Standing waves and resonance Energy loss by impedance mismatching Reduction of energy loss by quarter-wave and tapered-section transformers Original audience: college students Produced at Bell Labs Footage courtesy of AT&T Archives and History Center, Warren, NJ

Why it's here

12 people recommend this

What people say. Widely recommended as the absolute best visual introduction to wave behavior, impedance matching, and transmission line physics.

kaoDon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Show HN: Explained Visually”

I'm even jealous of the engineering students that came before me! :P Visualization is such a powerful tool. I didn't really understand waves until I saw "Similarities of Wave Behaviour" link to this video

tzson Hacker News • Recommends

On “How a Watch Works (1949) [video]”

…seen: 1. 2. A 1937 explanation of how the differential in a car works: 2. Here is another upload of that which is lower resolution, but has more from the same source in the sidebar 3. I suppose it could be something akin to survivorship bias that makes old educational films seem so good--the bad ones don't get remembered 60 years later. 1 link to this video 2 link 3 link…

Causality1on Hacker News • Recommends

On “Ask HN: Your favourite tutorial for total beginners?”

Bell Labs' 1959 video "Similarities of Wave Behavior." By far the best introduction to the subject of waves of any sort. link to this video

tzson Hacker News • Recommends

On “Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W external antenna mod”

This outstanding 1959 movie from Bell Labs demonstrates standing waves, impedance matching, and more in a very nice way using a couple of Shive wave machines, hosted by Dr. Shive himself 1. 1 link to this video 2 link

_trampeltieron Hacker News • Recommends

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This very old video does it all explain better than all todays videos. The models are just so simple, no animations. link to this video

fsocietyon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Signal Reflections in Electronic Circuits”

Thinking of an electron as a thing that travels from the start of the circuit to the end results in a bad mental model. Think of it as a wave, and then watch this video link to this video . Then you will have a strong mental model.

Joel_Mckayon Hacker News • Recommends

On “I created an open-source Hardware Hacking Wiki – with tutorials for beginners”

Get a ham radio technician license, and you may develop an intuitive perspective on most electrical engineering concepts. i.e. the physics lab derivation of the core EE tool set is unnecessary if you understand what the models are describing. AI is slop in and slop out... and dangerous to students... =3 John Shive's Wave Machines is where every student should start: link to this video

Joel_Mckayon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Designing Electronics That Work”

It is not "hard" after some practice, but you need to be willing to learn. In general, DFM is a specialized area most EE have zero training in unless they chose to study it as an option. John Shive's Wave Machines is where every student should start: link to this video Remember to have fun =3

topspinon Hacker News • Recommends

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>> Anyone know of more videos like this one? Sure. Similiarities of Wave Behavior (1959) link to this video The link above skips the modern fluff at the beginning. Shive uses a mechanical transverse wave machine to demonstrate the concepts involved in transmission lines, including reflection, standing waves and impedance matching.

nudgeeeon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Signal Reflection”

Also check out the excellent video from Bell Labs: “Similarities of Wave Behaviour (1959)” 0, which showcases termination, reflection, resonance and impedance using the Shive Wave Machine. 0 link to this video

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Thank you for this link! The part starting here is particularly interesting to me: link to this video Why is that? Well, because a long time ago, I built an extremely low-power battery operated DC Tesla Coil. It worked, but the one thing I could not figure out was why the coil with the small number of turns, the coil that typically encircles the long coil with the many turns, why this coil with smaller turns -- had to be positioned a slight distance up the many turns coil, and not either directly at its end, nor at its middle. Well, this video, at the point I've noted, explains the answer why. It also explains the relationship between frequency, length of resonator, and ability to create larger amplitu…

tzson Hacker News • Recommends

On “1937 film explains how a car differential works”

Another great older film is "Similarities of Wave Behavior" 1 from Bell Labs. It was aimed at college students, and covers in a very clear way these topics: reflection of waves from free and clamped ends, superposition, standing waves and resonance, energy loss by impedance mismatching, and reduction of energy loss by quarter-wave and tapered-section transformers. 1 link to this video

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If you want to understand how TDR works, watch this classic tutorial from the mid-50s in the AT&T archive. The first 5 minutes, showing the reflection of an open and short circuit is enough. * AT&T Archives: Similiarities of Wave Behavior link to this video Many are surprised when they learned that it's possible to detect the location of a break in the mains wiring or an Ethernet cable, just by doing an electrical test from one end of the cable (some Ethernet cards even have builtin TDR support!). There's no closed loop, why is it possible to test anything electrically? Because at high frequency, the circuit becomes an electromagnetic waveguide. Basically like a radar, you send a fast electrical or opt…

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There's no all in one stop for understanding radio but these 5 resources helped me a lot. The RF Get Down courses. This is by far the best material online to learn RF and how modulation works: link 3blue1brown's video tutorial on the fourier transform: link AT&T Archives: Similiarities of Wave Behavior link to this video Quadrature Signals: Complex, But Not Complicated by Richard Lyons, link link Antenna Theory's website and forums, link I also highly recommend getting a $20 rtl-sdr USB software defined radio dongle. They're great toys for learning RF, what modulation is , and exploring the spectrum.

tzson Hacker News • Recommends

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> And as a bonus, an explanation about transistors from 1953 And here is a 1959 video from the same source about wave behavior 1. It covers reflection from open and closed ends, superposition, standing waves and resonance, impedance mismatching, and tapered-section transformers all in a way that makes it really easy to understand. 1 link to this video

nudgeeeon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Signal Reflections in Electronic Circuits”

In RF electronics, wires end up looking like transmission lines. Here’s one of the classic lectures on wave propagation and reflections, where it looks at similarities in wave behaviour across mechanical, electrical, acoustic and optical systems. AT&T Similarities of Wave Behaviour (1959): link to this video