Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
In physics, a sinusoidal plane wave is a special case of plane wave: a field whose value varies as a sinusoidal function of time and of the distance from some fixed plane. It is also called a monochromatic plane wave , with constant frequency (as in monochromatic radiation ).
The term is also used, even more specifically, to mean a "monochromatic" or sinusoidal plane wave: a travelling plane wave whose profile () is a sinusoidal function. That is, (,) = (() +) The parameter , which may be a scalar or a vector, is called the amplitude of the wave; the scalar coefficient is its "spatial frequency"; and the scalar is its "phase shift".
Sinusoidal plane-wave solutions are particular solutions to the wave equation. The general solution of the electromagnetic wave equation in homogeneous, linear, time-independent media can be written as a linear superposition of plane-waves of different frequencies and polarizations .
In physics, the wavefront of a time-varying wave field is the set of all points having the same phase. [1] The term is generally meaningful only for fields that, at each point, vary sinusoidally in time with a single temporal frequency (otherwise the phase is not well defined).
A sine wave, sinusoidal wave, or sinusoid (symbol: ∿) is a periodic wave whose waveform (shape) is the trigonometric sine function. In mechanics , as a linear motion over time, this is simple harmonic motion ; as rotation , it corresponds to uniform circular motion .
Of these, the most important examples are the electromagnetic plane waves, in which the radiation has planar wavefronts moving in a specific direction at the speed of light. Of these, the most basic is the monochromatic plane waves, in which only one frequency component is present. This is precisely the phenomenon that this solution model, but ...
A plane wave is an important mathematical idealization where the disturbance is identical along any (infinite) plane normal to a specific direction of travel. Mathematically, the simplest wave is a sinusoidal plane wave in which at any point the field experiences simple harmonic motion at one frequency.
Photon polarization is the quantum mechanical description of the classical polarized sinusoidal plane electromagnetic wave.An individual photon can be described as having right or left circular polarization, or a superposition of the two.