What happens to energy after destructive interference of two waves?

[mprm86]

What happens with energy after two or more waves interfere destructively? Is there a loss of energy?

Thanks.

 

[ZapperZ]

Believe it or not, as the case for many seemingly-simple problem, the answer to this can be rather lengthy. For example, if you are talking about two oppositely-moving overlapping waves, then the energy conservation comes in because the location of destructive interference is still moving (i.e. it may have an instantaneous zero amplitude, but it still has a kinetic energy).

A very thorough discussion of this can be found in a paper written by N. Gauthier "What happens to energy and momentum when two oppositely-moving wave pulses overlap", Am. J. Phys. v.71, p.787 (2003).

Zz.

 

[astrokreng]

After destructive interference of two waves, the energy is redistributed and redistributed in a way that results in a decrease in the overall amplitude of the resulting wave. This means that some of the energy is canceled out, resulting in a decrease in the intensity of the wave. However, energy is not lost in this process. It is simply redistributed in a way that results in a decrease in the amplitude of the wave. This is similar to how two waves can interfere constructively and result in an increase in the overall amplitude of the resulting wave. In both cases, the energy is conserved. It is just distributed differently.