Re: [Phys-L] What is a Wave?

[John Denker <jsd@av8n.com>]

Gaaaack!  It has been pointed out that on  02/07/2015 
02:30 PM, I left off the pointer to my new document:
  https://www.av8n.com/physics/wave-intro.htm

Sorry for wasting bandwidth.

Some people seem to have found it anyway;  it is mentioned
in the table of contents at
  https://www.av8n.com/physics/

> I collected some resources and some thoughts on the topic
> of "What Is a Wave?"
>
>      1  Examples and Counterexamples
>         1.1  Waves 
>         1.2  Non-Waves 
>     2  What is a Wave? 
>     3  What is a Wave Equation? 
>     4  Reflection from an Impedance Mismatch 
>     5  Nonlinearity and Dispersion 
>     6  References 
>
> It's a first draft, very incomplete, but still you may
> find some bits of it to be useful.
>
> In particular:  If anybody has a better definition of 
> "what is a wave", please let us know!  I've seen lots
> of definitions, but the simple ones are not good, and
> the good ones are not simple.
>
> Also:  I would sure like to see a demonstration of a
> wave hitting an impedance mismatch /without/ a speed
> mismatch.  This should not be particularly hard to do
> using a Shive-style torsion wave machine.  It might
> make a nice science-fair project.