Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Fundamentals: progressive and stationary wave

A comparison:
Energy: There is transfer of energy along the wave in progressive but no transfer of energy in stationary wave .

Amplitude : Every particle has the same amplitude in progressive wave . In stationary wave particles between successive nodes have different amplitude.

Phase: Every particle within one wave length have different phase. Particles within 2nodes have the same phase. These particles are antiphase with those in adjacent node.