|
Sunday, 15 June 2008 00:00 |
|
As the applet starts, you see a vibration which begins at
the left end traveling towards right. If you observe any
particle you would find it vibrating up and down. You would
say to yourself, something is moving to the right
here, it is not the particles, they are only vibrating
up and down - it is a shape or a vibration
that is moving to the right- being passed on from particle to
particle. That is what wave motion is - a moving vibration or
a moving shape.
Why does a vibration move, get passed on - It is because
particles are not independent. If you do something to one
particle, its neighbour reacts- Here each neighbour behaves
the same way as its predecessor, but with a time lag. If all
the particles were rigidly bound, then they would all vibrate
together- there is no passing on - no shape moving- no wave
motion, because they all vibrate simultaneously. And if all
the particles were independent, then again a vibration
produced will be confined to the particle that is disturbed.
There is no wave motion. That shoud define a wave- A
vibratory disturbance propagating in an elastic medium.
 |
Subscribe to this comment's feed