Re: Wave phase reversal on reflection

[Tom Ford <tomford@THESCIENCESOURCE.COM>]

Now is the time to point out that a good way to model this behavior, for
students at the introductory level, is to make a projection transparency of
the wave (represented as a parade of wavefronts or a simple sine wave) and
then fold the model at the proposed plane of the reflector on an overhead
projector. This will also handle those interesting cases where the incident
is not along the normal to the interface.

Tom Ford


At 01:34 PM 4/25/00 -0500, you wrote:
> Remove the boundary.  The reflected wave projected past the boundary
> must exactly cancel the incident wave in the region beyond the boundary.
>                        Regards,
>                                Jack
>
> Adam was by constitution and proclivity a scientist; I was the same, and
> we loved to call ourselves by that great name...Our first memorable
> scientific discovery was the law that water and like fluids run downhill,
> not up.
>                          Mark Twain, <Extract from Eve's Autobiography>
>
> On Mon, 24 Apr 2000, SSHS KPHOX wrote:
>
> > My colleague asked if there were a good explanatiion for the phase
> > reversal when a wave reflects from a boundary where the new speed will be
> > less and not when going from slow to fast. I don't have one for her. Can
> > anyone help?
> >
> > Ken Fox
> > AP/IB Physics Teacher
> > Smoky Hill High School, CO