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Animation of the additive synthesis of a triangle wave with an increasing number of harmonics. See Fourier Analysis for a mathematical description.. It is possible to approximate a triangle wave with additive synthesis by summing odd harmonics of the fundamental while multiplying every other odd harmonic by −1 (or, equivalently, changing its phase by π) and multiplying the amplitude of the ...
Position of a point in space, not necessarily a point on the wave profile or any line of propagation d, r: m [L] Wave profile displacement Along propagation direction, distance travelled (path length) by one wave from the source point r 0 to any point in space d (for longitudinal or transverse waves) L, d, r
The electromagnetic wave equation is a second-order partial differential equation that describes the propagation of electromagnetic waves through a medium or in a vacuum. It is a three-dimensional form of the wave equation. The homogeneous form of the equation, written in terms of either the electric field E or the magnetic field B, takes the form:
For an incident wave traveling from one medium (where the wave speed is c 1) to another medium (where the wave speed is c 2), one part of the wave will transmit into the second medium, while another part reflects back into the other direction and stays in the first medium. The amplitude of the transmitted wave and the reflected wave can be ...
The Helmholtz equation has a variety of applications in physics and other sciences, including the wave equation, the diffusion equation, and the Schrödinger equation for a free particle. In optics, the Helmholtz equation is the wave equation for the electric field. [1] The equation is named after Hermann von Helmholtz, who studied it in 1860. [2]
Even in dispersive media, the frequency f of a sinusoidal wave is equal to the phase velocity v of the wave divided by the wavelength λ of the wave: =. In the special case of electromagnetic waves in vacuum , then v = c , where c is the speed of light in vacuum, and this expression becomes f = c λ . {\displaystyle f={\frac {c}{\lambda }}.}
A sinusoidal plane wave is one special solution of these equations. Maxwell's equations explain how these waves can physically propagate through space. The changing magnetic field creates a changing electric field through Faraday's law.
where ν is the frequency of the wave, λ is the wavelength, ω = 2πν is the angular frequency of the wave, and v p is the phase velocity of the wave. The dependence of the wavenumber on the frequency (or more commonly the frequency on the wavenumber) is known as a dispersion relation.