All spiders have special organs that make them exquisitely sensitive to vibrations. Web spiders detect vibrations of their web to determine what has landed in their web, and where. In fact, spiders carefully adjust the tension of strands to “tune” their web. Suppose an insect lands and is trapped in a web. The silk of the web serves as the spring in a spring-mass system while the body of the insect is the mass. The frequency of oscillation depends on the restoring force of the web and the mass of the insect. Spiders respond more quickly to larger—and therefore more valuable—prey, which they can distinguish by the web’s oscillation frequency. Suppose a 12 mg fly lands in the center of a horizontal spider’s web, causing the web to sag by 3.0 mm. If the web were vertical rather than horizontal, how would the frequency of oscillation be affected? A. The frequency would be higher. B. The frequency would be lower. C. The frequency would be the same.
83. All spiders have special organs that make them exquisitely sensitive to vibrations. Web spiders detect vibrations of their web to determine what has landed in their web, and where. In fact, spiders carefully adjust the tension of strands to “tune” their web. Suppose an insect lands and is trapped in a web. The silk of the web serves as the spring in a spring-mass system while the body of the insect is the mass. The frequency of oscillation depends on the restoring force of the web and the mass of the insect. Spiders respond more quickly to larger—and therefore more valuable—prey, which they can distinguish by the web’s oscillation frequency. Suppose a 12 mg fly lands in the center of a horizontal spider’s web, causing the web to sag by 3.0 mm.
If the web were vertical rather than horizontal, how would the frequency of oscillation be affected? A. The frequency would be higher. B. The frequency would be lower. C. The frequency would be the same.
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