- #1
Joker93
- 504
- 36
Hello!
I need to understand one seemingly simple thing in wave mechanics, so any help is much appreciated!
When a pulse travels to the right toward an open end(like a massless ring that is free to oscillate only in the vertical direction), then when the wave reaches the end it gets reflected and it becomes a positive pulse traveling to the left. So, my first question is, why do we even have this think called reflection? What causes it in physical terms(intuitively)? And why for an open end the reflected wave is a positive wave and why for a closed end the reflected wave is a negative wave?
Also, for the open end case, the massless ring will have an amplitude of two time the amplitude of the incident wave while the wave gets reflected. Why is this the case? (or to state it differently why does the ratio of the amplitude of the transmitted wave divided by the amplitude of the incident wave equal to +2?).
Thank you!
I need to understand one seemingly simple thing in wave mechanics, so any help is much appreciated!
When a pulse travels to the right toward an open end(like a massless ring that is free to oscillate only in the vertical direction), then when the wave reaches the end it gets reflected and it becomes a positive pulse traveling to the left. So, my first question is, why do we even have this think called reflection? What causes it in physical terms(intuitively)? And why for an open end the reflected wave is a positive wave and why for a closed end the reflected wave is a negative wave?
Also, for the open end case, the massless ring will have an amplitude of two time the amplitude of the incident wave while the wave gets reflected. Why is this the case? (or to state it differently why does the ratio of the amplitude of the transmitted wave divided by the amplitude of the incident wave equal to +2?).
Thank you!