Waves are disturbances that propagate throush space and time. Classically, they travelled through a medium, disturbing the particles but not changing their mean position. Electromagnetic waves/particle-waves need no medium; they are disturbances in their respective fields.
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82 views
Waves travelling with water flow
Suppose I use a tool to create a circular wave in the river. If there are two fish swimming 1m from the source (2m from one another), they will both feel the wave at the same time.
What will happen ...
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1answer
214 views
Open Ended/ Close Ended instruments?
Close ended instruments have twice the wavelength, because the wave must travel twice the distance to repeat itself.
Why must a wave reach a lower density medium (air in this case) to repeat? When ...
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1answer
286 views
How Light or Water Intensity is equal to square modulus of wave function of Light or Water Waves $I=|\psi|^2 \,$?
I've seen the Wave Function as a psi $\Psi$ $\psi$.
And always heard that the wave function is the Complex Number as Imaginary and real number.
But I've never seen it
I've never seen components of ...
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1answer
123 views
Relationship between gauss and decibels
In my ongoing effort to understand the world around me, I want to wrap my head around the relationships between two units of measure. Specifically gauss and decibels.
The quandary comes from my ...
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3answers
651 views
Geometry of wireless signal strength
How does wireless signal strength correspond to distance? RSSI lies between -100 and 0 (at least, on my computer). Let's say I walk a distance x towards the router, and my RSSI goes from -60 to -50. ...
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1answer
284 views
Is there orbital angular momentum for all particles?
Light as an electromagnetic wave can be polarized in different ways, e.g. linear or circular. As far as I understand it currently this can be compared to the spin direction of a propagation electron ...
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3answers
205 views
Testing my understanding of QM - The Double Slit Experiment without the slit
First off, sorry to throw in another question from someone who hasn't studied the maths.
I'd like to see if I have a correct (if very basic and non-mathematical) understanding of the wave and ...
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2answers
159 views
Radar Frequency Bandwidth
I've come across an interesting question in the course of doing some exam review in a quantum mechanics book and thought I'd share it here.
"What must be the frequency bandwidth of the detecting and ...
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1answer
203 views
Transparent boundary condition. Beam propagation method
I am interested in the finite-difference beam propagation method and its applications. I try to solve the Helmholtz equation. At first, i would like to solve numerically it for the easiest case, ...
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1answer
305 views
Why do I hear beats through headphones only at low frequencies?
I was recently playing with this Wolfram Demonstrations applet, which demonstrates beats.
At first I thought the app didn't work because I couldn't hear any beats. Then I realized that the applet ...
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1answer
128 views
How colored light can be explained if light is considered as emission of photon?
If light is considered as wave, then different colored light can be explained as waves of different wavelength/frequency. How colored light can be explained if light is considered as emission of ...
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0answers
35 views
Standing Waves in Flutes
How do the waves produced in flutes have a wave characteristic while maintaining a velocity that allows them to travel to out ear? If it were simply a standing wave I'd imagine that they would ...
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0answers
43 views
Longitudinal EMAG wave?
I'm reading about optical waveguide analysis, and often come across the terms "transverse electric mode" vs. "transverse magnetic mode". As I unerstand, it means that the electric/magnetic field has ...
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0answers
56 views
Double Slit Problem Involving Superposition of Wave Equation [closed]
Here's my question:
To be clear it's part (iv) that's unclear to me.
I can see that the important bit is that the exposure is over a LONG time. Hence, this must have some implication on the manner ...
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0answers
46 views
Fourier Transform of ribbon's beam Electric Field
I have a monochromatic ribbon beam with $E(x)e^{i(kz-\omega t)}$ being the electric field's amplitude. I want to show that the lowest order approximation in terms of plane waves is
...
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0answers
197 views
How to calculate the intensity of the interference of two waves in a given point?
There are two different point sources which produce spherical waves with the same power, amplitude, ω, wavenumber and phase.
I can calculate the intensity of each wave in a point:
$$
I_1 = P / (4 ...
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1answer
143 views
Are the sound waves from fundamental strings impossible to interact with?
Edited the question thanks to some helpful commenters.
Are the sound waves emitted by fundamental strings so small as to be impossible to interact with the world? In other words, do they disappear, ...
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1answer
269 views
How would natural (resonant) frequencies affect amplitudes?
I read $y=A\sin(2\pi ft)$, where $A$=Amplitude, $f$=Frequency, $t$=Time and $y$=$Y$ position of the wave.
Since natural frequencies only take the most effect when they are close to the frequency.
How ...
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0answers
36 views
How do you super impose two or more signals to occupy a fix area of space with the resultant summed wave?
Is it possible to super-impose two or more signals all sent from different directions as a standing wave with the resulting summed wave occupying a fix area of space that is also a complex area?
Do ...
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0answers
121 views
Help With Difficult Deductive Proof [closed]
Suppose we have a Gaussian beam with a complex envelope expressed by the following equation 1:
$$\tag{1}
A_G(x,y,z) = \frac{A_1}{q(z)} e^{-ik \frac{x^2 + y^2}{2q(z)}}
$$
where
$$
q(z) = z+iz_0
$$
...
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0answers
43 views
What phenomenon is responsible for the evolution pattern of waves created by waterfalls?
I have been fascinated lately by the pattern of the waves created by a waterfall in my town. Specifically, the pattern shows a gradual decrease in the density of the waves as they travel away from ...
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0answers
102 views
Behavior of wave at boundary
Firstly, how is "density" of wave formulated as?
Secondly, when wave, travelling in less density medium, meets with the boundary that has higher density medium next to, reflected parts of the wave ...
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1answer
319 views
Relationship between classical electromagnetic wave frequency and quantum wave function + de broglie frequency
As it is.
As I study through classical mechanics and quantum mechanics, I began to wonder whether there is a relationship between classical electromagnetic wave frequency and quantum wave function ...
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0answers
121 views
How to derive a multi-reflection echo from a given single-reflection “trace”
Consider a one-dimensional semi-bounded "ray" (or thin "cylinder") of stratum (or just any homogeneous substance) which has several "features" along it's length (say, thin films). Consider a wave that ...
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1answer
162 views
Wave equation from hooke law - simple question
In the paragraph http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave_equation#From_Hooke.27s_law
it is said, regarding the u(x) function, that
Here u(x) measures the distance from the equilibrium of the mass
...
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1answer
763 views
Relation between wavenumber and propagation constant
What is the exact difference between wavenumber and propagation constant in an electromagnetic wave propagating in a medium such as a transmission line, cause i am a bit confused. Does it have to do ...
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0answers
231 views
Depth of sea and point at which waves break
Following up on this answer, is the point at which waves break on the sea shore a guide to the depth of the sea at that point? Could it indicate eg hidden rocks?
Explain the direction of waves on sea ...
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0answers
118 views
Reflected electromagnetic wave relation
If incident electromagnetic wave is given as:
$$\begin{align*}E_i&=A_e \cos(\omega t + bz)\\
H_i&=A_h \cos(\omega t + bz)\end{align*}$$
What would be relation for REFLECTED wave?
Does it ...
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0answers
341 views
Double Slit Problem, Waves and Optics [closed]
Given d(slit separation)= $0.158\:\rm{mm}$, $\lambda _{red}= 665\:\rm{nm}$, $\lambda _{g/y}= 565nm$, L(distance from screen)= $2.24\:\rm{m}$
What is the distance between the third order red and ...
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0answers
61 views
Reorienting a sensor axes according to particle displacement directions
Consider a sensor which is located inside the solid substance. This sensor is capable of detecting the substance oscillations along each of the three axes (usually orthogonal, but generally, any ...
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2answers
338 views
Transmission of energy in medium and wave nature (periodicity)? [closed]
Is there any example of a transmission of energy in a medium that does not show wave nature?
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3answers
560 views
Direction of Propagation of Wave
I've always been a little uneasy with the notion of direction of wave propagation, for some reason. I guess it's always been defined 'intuitively' and I want to know the limits of the concept. To this ...
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3answers
74 views
Lethality of sounds and extreme “loudness”
In theory, could pure sound be lethal? How loud would it have to be? Also, which events are the loudest in the universe, and how loud are they? I'm confining attention to events which occur regularly, ...
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3answers
389 views
Sine wave, $\pi$ and frequency
Please explain the relation $\sin(2\pi ft)$ such that how the $\pi$ (which is actually circumference/diameter of a circle) relates with the sine wave which is having a longitudinal vibration?
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4answers
102 views
Messing with the past: Endless loop, or alternate timelines? [closed]
Let's take the following scenario:
A person finds a time machine. He uses it to travel to the past, and
kills his grandparents. Now because of this, his parents are never
born, they do not ...
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2answers
3k views
Can the equation $v=\lambda f$ be made true even for non sinusoidal waves?
The known relation between the speed of a propagating wave, the wave length of the wave, and its frequency is
$$v=\lambda f$$
which is always true for any periodic sinusoidal waves.
Now consider:
...
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1answer
172 views
Standing Wave: How to show that $\frac{\mathrm df}{f}=0.5\frac{\mathrm dF}{F}$ where $f$ is frequency and $F$ is tension of the string?
How to do this?
Show that if the tension $F$ in a string is changed by a small amount $\mathrm dF$, the fractional change in frequency of a standing wave, $\frac{\mathrm df}{f}$ is given by:
...
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1answer
53 views
The second resonance of string?
What is the relationship between "the second resonance " and string and the wavelength. Like in this question: if the length of the string is 2cm with second resonance, then what is wavelength?
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1answer
312 views
how to determine the direction of a wave propagation?
In the textbook, it said a wave in the form $y(x, t) = A\cos(\omega t + \beta x + \varphi)$ propagates along negative $x$ direction and $y(x, t) = A\cos(\omega t - \beta x + \varphi)$ propagates along ...
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2answers
43 views
Why is the turbulent energy cascade described as function of a wavenumber?
In all the literature I've seen the turbulent energy spectrum described as $E(k)$ instead of $E(L)$, i.e. as a function of a wave number not eddy size. The connection via $k=2\pi/\lambda$ is clear, ...
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1answer
389 views
Huygens Principle and principal of rectilinear propagation of light
Suppose I have an wave source and light waves are radiating from it. If I have a point source, then after a time t, with a radius of ct I will have a circular wave front.By Huygens principle each ...
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3answers
245 views
Conservation of energy with Huygens-Fresnel principle
I am currently experimenting with Huygens-Fresnel principle. I am trying to simulate the propagation of a beam, emerging from an aperture slot of width w. I assume the slot to be long and therefore ...
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2answers
96 views
Sound “exploding” in car's window at certain speed [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Why, when one opens 1 car window, does that noise occur?
My knowledge in this area is really out-of-dated and stopped somewhere like ten years ago. So I would like to ...
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1answer
253 views
Speed of Light, Photons or WaveSpeed?
The speed of light is almost 300 000 km/s.
The photons have a speed along the wave, and the wave have a speed straight forwards.
What is the speed of light? Is it the speed the photons have along ...
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1answer
95 views
How does one find the wave velocity and the phase speed?
While I was studying beats, I tried to find a displacement function of any particle in the most generalized form. I ended up with $$y=2A\sin(\pi(t-x/v)(f_1+f_2))\cos(\pi(t-x/v)(f_1-f_2)).$$
Now, ...
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2answers
53 views
Can a stream of photons to be an environment for carrying light?
As the air molecules are environment for carrying sound waves, could stream of photons be environment for carrying electromagnetic waves? What contradictions cause this assumption in the existing ...
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2answers
268 views
What characterizes a metallic sound, and why do metals have a metallic sound?
We know that when we strike a metal, it usually has a characteristic "sharp" sound, unlike when we strike wood, say.
What characterizes this "metallic sound"? Does it have a well-defined power ...
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1answer
180 views
Does a football stadium wave satisfy the wave equation?
This is the wave by fans. Does it satisfy the wave equation?
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1answer
110 views
Width of Gaussian Beam and Refractive Index
I know that in free space, the width of a Gaussian beam can be written as $W=W_0\sqrt{1+(\frac{z}{z_0})^{2}}$. However, I was wondering if it was possible to express this width as a function of ...
0
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1answer
57 views
Percentage increase in the length of pendulum
I'm struggling with a physics question :
What should be the percentage increase in the length of the chord of a pendulum for the period increased by 1%?
The answer is 2%.
I tried with $w = 2 \pi/T ...
