This Demonstration illustrates the normal vibrational modes of a drum head fixed along a circular edge. Each mode with elongation (in polar coordinates)
is related to Bessel functions of the first kind,
, where
is the radial coordinate,
the polar angle, and
the time. Selecting the order,
, determines the angular periodicity of the drum head. Selecting the
zero
of
determines the number of antinodes along a radial line connecting the center and outer edge.
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