- #1
kcodon
- 81
- 0
Hi all,
My question initially came to me as I was thinking about standing waves, in that how do waves interfere, and then come out unchanged after this interference? For simplicities sake, imagine we have two wave pulses coming toward each other on a string. Now let's say they are out of phase, so when they hit, there will be points when the string will be completely flat...i.e. complete destructive interference. My question is this...how do the waves progress past this point? Is it not the same as a wave suddenly appearing out of a string? All the particles are motionless at destructive interference point, so how do they "know" (I don't like using that term but its the only way I can think to put it) that they are going to form a wave afterward? If so, then where does the energy come from to do this, as in either case the energy is at a minimum as the particles are not moving, and then they suddenly are all moving, thus having energy that has magically appeared from somewhere? I think there are similar implications for constructive interference too...
This all stemmed, as I said before, from standing waves, and how a wave can pass through a nodal point...again with this I'm somewhat stumped too.
Anyway some help would be greatly appreciated,
Kcodon
My question initially came to me as I was thinking about standing waves, in that how do waves interfere, and then come out unchanged after this interference? For simplicities sake, imagine we have two wave pulses coming toward each other on a string. Now let's say they are out of phase, so when they hit, there will be points when the string will be completely flat...i.e. complete destructive interference. My question is this...how do the waves progress past this point? Is it not the same as a wave suddenly appearing out of a string? All the particles are motionless at destructive interference point, so how do they "know" (I don't like using that term but its the only way I can think to put it) that they are going to form a wave afterward? If so, then where does the energy come from to do this, as in either case the energy is at a minimum as the particles are not moving, and then they suddenly are all moving, thus having energy that has magically appeared from somewhere? I think there are similar implications for constructive interference too...
This all stemmed, as I said before, from standing waves, and how a wave can pass through a nodal point...again with this I'm somewhat stumped too.
Anyway some help would be greatly appreciated,
Kcodon