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Questions tagged [waves]

Waves are disturbances that propagate through space and time. Classically, they travelled through a medium, disturbing the particles but not changing their mean position. Electromagnetic waves/particle-waves need no medium; they are disturbances in their respective fields.

Waves are observable physical phenomena that propagate the movement of energy through space and time. Some waves, like sound, require a material medium to propagate energy; disturbing the matter through which the wave passes. Electromagnetic waves/particle-waves require no medium for propagation; they disturb their own respective fields they generate.

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Can I compute the mass of a coin based on the sound of its fall?

The other day, I bumped my bookshelf and a coin fell down. This gave me an idea. Is it possible to compute the mass of a coin, based on the sound emitted when it falls? I think that there should be a way to do it. But how?
Vinicius L. Beserra
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Why are the harmonics of a piano tone not multiples of the base frequency?

I was trying to figure out which piano keys were being played in an audio recording using spectral analysis, and I noticed that the harmonics are not integer multiple of the base note. What is the reason for this? Take a look at the spectrogram of…
Szabolcs
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What happens to the energy when waves perfectly cancel each other?

What happens to the energy when waves completely cancel each other out via destructive interference? It seems like the energy just disappears, but that would violate the law of energy conservation. My guess is that the kinetic energy is transformed…
aortizmena
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Why does rainwater form moving waves on the ground? Is there a name for this effect?

A while ago it was raining and I noticed that, on sloped pavement, water was flowing in very regular consistent periodic waves, as you see below. However, I realized I had no idea why this should be happening. There was nothing uphill actually…
user541686
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Why do travelling waves continue after amplitude sum = 0?

My professor asked an interesting question at the end of the last class, but I can't figure out the answer. The question is this (recalled from memory): There are two travelling wave pulses moving in opposite directions along a rope with equal and…
Dylan
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Why does fire make very little sound?

Sound is air particles vibrating (thus hitting each other to make longitudinal waves) and heat is the vibration of air molecules. Because we can only assume that heat made from fire is a higher intensity of vibration than sound (because we don't…
yolo
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Why can we distinguish different pitches in a chord but not different hues of light?

In music, when two or more pitches are played together at the same time, they form a chord. If each pitch has a corresponding wave frequency (a pure, or fundamental, tone), the pitches played together make a superposition waveform, which is obtained…
chharvey
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If water is incompressible, how can sound propagate underwater?

Since sound travels as longitudinal waves, sound waves should only be able to propagate in a medium through compressions and rarefactions. However, water, as a liquid, is generally treated as an incompressible fluid. Since compression is essential…
Omnitragedy
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Why doesn't the motion of a car affect the frequency of radio stations?

When we go in a car and tune to an FM radio station, why doesn't our motion disturb the frequency? Like the Doppler effect?
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Why don't choir voices destructively interfere so that we can't hear them?

Sound is propagated by waves. Waves can interfere. Suppose there are two tenors standing next to each other and each singing a continuous middle-C. Will it be the case that some people in the audience cannot hear them because of interference?…
chasly - supports Monica
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How is the Schroedinger equation a wave equation?

Wave equations take the form: $$\frac{ \partial^2 f} {\partial t^2} = c^2 \nabla ^2f$$ But the Schroedinger equation takes the form: $$i \hbar \frac{ \partial f} {\partial t} = - \frac{\hbar ^2}{2m}\nabla ^2f + U(x) f$$ The partials with respect…
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Why does the sun have to be nearly fully covered to notice any darkening in an eclipse?

I was looking at eclipse footage and I noticed that it doesn't get any noticeably darker until the very end when it suddenly all the light is gone. As the moon blocks out the Sun, I would expect that the brightness would gradually decrease as less…
Giulio Crisanti
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Why do prisms work (why is refraction frequency dependent)?

It is well known that a prism can "split light" by separating different frequencies of light: Many sources state that the reason this happens is that the index of refraction is different for different frequencies. This is known as dispersion. My…
Brandon Enright
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Are there pure sine waves in nature or are they a mathematical construct that helps us understand more complex phenomena?

I've studied a bit of frequency analysis with FFT and optimal phase binning and was taught that we can represent any composite waveform as the sum of its component frequencies. I understand the maths works and gives meaningful results that we can…
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Phase shift of 180 degrees of transversal wave on reflection from denser medium

Can anyone please provide an intuitive explanation of why phase shift of 180 degrees occurs in the Electric Field of a EM wave, when reflected from an optically denser medium? I tried searching for it but everywhere the result is just used.The…
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