Table of Contents
- 1 What happens to a wave during rarefaction and compression?
- 2 What happens when two waves of different frequencies meet?
- 3 How do compression and rarefaction relate to wavelength?
- 4 Can two waves with different frequencies interfere?
- 5 What happens to the amplitude of the resultant wave when two sound waves with equal amplitude constructively interfere?
- 6 How do refracted waves and diffracted waves differ?
What happens to a wave during rarefaction and compression?
A compression is a region in a longitudinal wave where the particles are closest together. A rarefaction is a region in a longitudinal wave where the particles are furthest apart. The region where the medium is compressed is known as a compression and the region where the medium is spread out is known as a rarefaction.
What happens when two waves of different frequencies meet?
What is Interference? Wave interference is the phenomenon that occurs when two waves meet while traveling along the same medium. The interference of waves causes the medium to take on a shape that results from the net effect of the two individual waves upon the particles of the medium.
What will happen when two waves of the same amplitude and wavelength meet at the same place and the same time and they are in phase?
Standing Waves. The waves move through each other with their disturbances adding as they go by. If the two waves have the same amplitude and wavelength, then they alternate between constructive and destructive interference. The resultant looks like a wave standing in place and, thus, is called a standing wave.
What is it called when waves come together?
More specifically, the disturbances of waves are superimposed when they come together (a phenomenon called superposition). Each disturbance corresponds to a force, or amplitude (and the forces add).
How do compression and rarefaction relate to wavelength?
A longitudinal wave consists of a repeating pattern of compressions and rarefactions. Thus, the wavelength is commonly measured as the distance from one compression to the next adjacent compression or the distance from one rarefaction to the next adjacent rarefaction.
Can two waves with different frequencies interfere?
No; wave interference takes place whenever two waves of any frequency, same, nearly the same or widely different interact. An air molecule next to your ear, for example, can only respond to the sum of all the different sound waves reaching it at any moment.
When two waves are overlapped on each other in the same medium are they still two waves or is the result a single wave?
When two waves are overlapped on each other in the same medium are they still two waves or is the result a single wave defend your answer? The principle of linear superposition – when two or more waves come together, the result is the sum of the individual waves.
Which two waves have the same amplitude but different wavelengths?
Both Wave 1 and Wave 2 have the same wavelength but different amplitudes. The wavelength of light is an important property for it is this that determines the nature of the light. Red light has a different wavelength to that of blue light and green light has a different wavelength from both of them.
What happens to the amplitude of the resultant wave when two sound waves with equal amplitude constructively interfere?
For two waves of equal amplitude interfering constructively, the resulting amplitude is twice as large as the amplitude of an individual wave. For 100 waves of the same amplitude interfering constructively, the resulting amplitude is 100 times larger than the amplitude of an individual wave.
How do refracted waves and diffracted waves differ?
Reflection involves a change in direction of waves when they bounce off a barrier; refraction of waves involves a change in the direction of waves as they pass from one medium to another; and diffraction involves a change in direction of waves as they pass through an opening or around a barrier in their path.
What happens when the crest of one wave overlaps the trough of a different wave?
Destructive interference occurs when the crests of one wave overlap the troughs, or lowest points, of another wave. As the waves pass through each other, the crests and troughs cancel each other out to produce a wave with zero amplitude.