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What is the frequency of a standing wave?

A harmonic is a wave pattern formed by a standing wave. The first harmonic is the one with the longest wavelength(and lowest frequency), which decreases with higher harmonics. All harmonics have ...
Raptorex Corcovatus's user avatar
5 votes

Galilean invariance of the wave equation

You derived the wave equation assuming the material was stationary, and that is the only case for which that equation is valid. When you transform reference frames you no longer have a stationary ...
George Chiporikov's user avatar
3 votes

Galilean invariance of the wave equation

A simple derivation of the wave equation from Newton’s second law is to consider harmonic oscillators in series: $$ \ddot u_n = (u_{n+1}+u_{n-1}-2u_n) $$ with $u$ the displacement and normalized mass ...
LPZ's user avatar
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Is it possible to "pull" sound waves using only an object?

A receiver dialed in to a specific frequency band, and headphones to perceive the initial vibration of the medium that generated said frequency.
Jay Grimes's user avatar
0 votes

Diffraction when the wavefront is not parallel to the plane

So even if your wave fronts are "parallel" to the plane, if they have a phase that varies over one dimension of the plane, they are in effect incoming or outgoing at an angle. So this is ...
David's user avatar
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Why does the pet's water bowl overflow?

The reason may be simple, because your container not only has angular movement, initially T-2 tilts forward, then T-1 tilts backward, but also horizontal movement from right to left during this ...
enbin's user avatar
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-2 votes

Why does the pet's water bowl overflow?

If you check the tide chart for your local area you will find that the bowl overflows only during the incoming tide and is directly proportionate to what stage the tide is at when you set the bowl ...
StillWill's user avatar
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Why the frequency component is not included when the energy of a wave is described?

According to particle theory, the energy of a photon depends on frequency which makes sense. But in classical theory, how is it included? I am not seeing it. Energy density vs. energy flux One has to ...
Roger V.'s user avatar
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Why the frequency component is not included when the energy of a wave is described?

This really depends on the wave. If it's a wave in rope, there is kinetic energy associated with the velocity of the rope moving up and down, and in the linear limit: $$ v \propto A\omega $$ which has ...
JEB's user avatar
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Diffraction when the wavefront is not parallel to the plane

This is how you derive Snell's law: https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/3-024-electronic-optical-and-magnetic-properties-of-materials-spring-2013/480e12b984eb21a5e88b8ee5cc051ef8_MIT3_024S13_2012lec22.pdf ...
ABetheGammow's user avatar
1 vote
Accepted

What is the mathematical support for the formula $f_n = n f_1$, used to calculate the frequency of a standing wave?

Let's start with a quick answer: the boundary conditions fix the frequencies of the harmonics. It's worth emphasizing that boundary conditions come from physics, not mathematics. Below, I'll consider ...
Andrew's user avatar
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12 votes

Why does the pet's water bowl overflow?

The two horizontal sloshing modes could have slightly different frequencies (e.g. if the rotational symmetry is not perfect). If you then start with the combination of both, but out of phase, which is ...
Jos Bergervoet's user avatar
18 votes

Why does the pet's water bowl overflow?

If the mat is thick and soft enough to be compliant, then it will couple with the moving mass of the dish and water and allow the dish to tip back and forth, causing the spillage. This can be directly ...
niels nielsen's user avatar
40 votes
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Why does the pet's water bowl overflow?

A guess. Perhaps there are multiple modes present. It takes a while for them to have an interference maximum at the edge of the bowl.
mmesser314's user avatar
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0 votes

The "small amplitude" assumption in the derivation of the wave equation for the string

Following the most recent comment, I am going to try and prove that the “vertical displacement force law” assumption implies the small-amplitude assumption. The small-amplitude assumption is ...
DinoS's user avatar
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The "small amplitude" assumption in the derivation of the wave equation for the string

A propos "the restoring force being proportional to the displacement," a textbook that does not use the small-amplitude assumption in the derivation of the wave equation for the string is ...
DinoS's user avatar
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Directionality of EM Waves in Double Slit Experiment

The diagram on the left is in the xy-plane and you can liken it to a contour map taken at an instant of time, like a photograph. Initially let me assume that the incoming light is plane polarised in y-...
Farcher's user avatar
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1 vote

Human error in wave experiment

However, because it is done just by looking it means that there is some subjectivity which could lead to human error, so do not look at the frequency display whilst altering the frequency and take ...
Farcher's user avatar
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2 votes
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Human error in wave experiment

To get a high degree of accuracy in this kind of mechanical experiment you need patience on the order of humans who existed before the digital age. Run the driving for a long time and use video ...
mike1994's user avatar
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0 votes

Why does radiation of small wavelength interact with small objects?

Your bullet analogy applies in the sense that the bullet is analogous to the macroscopic thermal "damage" caused by lower frequency, longer wavelength microwave radiation, while the higher ...
Bob D's user avatar
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Is there a relation between phase plane and complex plane?

Given a configuration space $M$, the phase space $T^*M$ is a cotangent bundle on $M$. Any cotangent bundle has a canonical symplectic structure, and any symplectic manifold with a Riemann metric has a ...
Godfly666's user avatar
3 votes

Huygens' principle and the laws of reflection/refraction

The points shown as yellow blobs on your diagram are in phase, even though they are not on the same wavefront. The hemispheres drawn in the lower medium do seem like Huygens secondary wavelets. But ...
Philip Wood's user avatar
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6 votes
Accepted

Huygens' principle and the laws of reflection/refraction

The construction you link to shows the same wavefront at multiple points in time, not a snapshot of a light wave at one point in time. The yellow dots constituting the point sources at the interface ...
hijit's user avatar
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How to visualize the angular frequency in SHM?

For your first question regarding how to "visualize" $\omega$, I understand what your asking is, "can we draw an intuitive understanding of the angular frequency $\omega$ in much the ...
hijit's user avatar
  • 99
0 votes

Weird looking sine wave behavior in an electric circuit

I suspect that the signal generator is struggling to produce the lower frequencies you used in your tests and is not driving your circuit with a true sine wave, but with something looking like a ...
niels nielsen's user avatar
0 votes

Understanding Loop Formation in a Plucked String

One simple way to get some intuition is to think of it like this: After plucking, the string would like to relax into a sinusoidal wave which is zero at the edges and has a maximum amplitude (antinode)...
Codename 47's user avatar
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1 vote

Weird looking sine wave behavior in an electric circuit

With competent values that you have given and assuming that the voltage source has little or no resistance then $Q=10$ and the resonant frequency is $\approx 36\,\rm kHz$. As the $Q$ value is ...
Farcher's user avatar
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1 vote

Is it possible for a double slit experiment to create an interference pattern at 90 degrees?

Yes, it is possible. In the Fraunhofer approximation you have $$ I(\theta) \propto \cos^2 \left [{\frac {\pi d \sin \theta}{\lambda}}\right]~\mathrm{sinc}^2 \left [ \frac {\pi b \sin \theta}{\lambda} ...
my2cts's user avatar
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0 votes

Is it possible for a double slit experiment to create an interference pattern at 90 degrees?

No but Its possible to stretch the 5 interference bars into(at least approaching ) a superposition wave packet by angle offset of the laser source but slits are very restrictive overall. Free ...
Kev Andrews's user avatar
1 vote
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Where did the energy created go if there are no non conservative forces like friction acting in my scenario?

I don't think that you can have a wave in a massless string. So I will ignore that bit. If half wave with positive amplitude is sent through the string with some speed. ... another half wave with ...
Dale's user avatar
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1 vote

Where did the energy created go if there are no non conservative forces like friction acting in my scenario?

If the "+ wave" and "– wave" are traveling in opposite directions, there will be a moment when the string is flat as they pass through each other and cancel, but then they will ...
RC_23's user avatar
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2 votes

Decoupling Linearly Coupled Wave Equations with Potentials

Since $V$ is space dependent, you will need to diagonalise $\Delta+V$. This is like solving for the stationary solutions of the Schrödinger equation with internal degrees of freedom (like the Pauli ...
LPZ's user avatar
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