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Re: Waves



"Eric T. Lane" wrote:
One way to see the momentum carried by a wave is to use a long rod of
some metal, say aluminum or steel. Use a bit of vasoline to stick a
small plug or weight on the end of the rod. Then hit the other end of
the rod with a hammer. The momentum contained in the wave will be
traped in the plug which will pop off the end of the rod with some
velocity. Expreiment with the mass of the plug to maximize the transfer
of momentum, basically impedance matching.

In this case, haven't you basically constructed a momentum rectifier?
The rod can push the plug much better than it can pull.

--
--James McLean
jmclean@chem.ucsd.edu
post doc
UC San Diego, Chemistry