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[Phys-L] another Gedanken from PTSOS




I've often wondered a related question:

I understand about interference in fringes, and it makes sense that the energy lost at the nodes shows up at the anti-nodes.


bc doesn't think so.

But: What if you were able to get 2 beams to travel in the same direction, one on top of the other. Say, with a partially silvered mirror. If you could get two out-of-phase waves to travel in the same direction, one behind the other, you could achieve total cancellation. The beams would never diverge, so there would be no point where the energy reappears - it would effectively be gone forever.

Would this be possible? I'm assuming not, but why not?