Scribd
Upload
21 views4 pages

The Principle of Ssuperposition

Uploaded by

affanahmedbq
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
21 views4 pages

The Principle of Ssuperposition

Uploaded by

affanahmedbq
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 4

Superposition of waves

The principle of superposition, which asserts that, when several waves combine at
a point, the displacement of any particle at any given time is simply the sum of the
displacements that each individual wave acting alone would give it. For example,
suppose that two waves travel simultaneously along the same stretched string. Let
y1(x, t) and y2(x, t) be the displacements that the string would experience if each
wave acted alone. The displacement of the string when both waves act is then
y(x, t) = y1(x, t) + y2(x, t)
For mechanical waves in elastic media, the superposition principle holds whenever
the restoring force varies linearly with the displacement.
Figure shows a time sequence of “snapshots” of two pulses traveling in opposite
directions in the same stretched string. When the pulses overlap, the displacement
of the string is the algebraic sum of the individual displacements of the string
caused by each of the two pulses alone, as Eq. requires. The pulses simply move
through one another, each moving along as if the other were not present.
INTERFERENCE OF WAVES:
When two or more waves combine at a particular point, they are said to interfere,
and the phenomenon is called interference.
As we shall see, the resultant waveform is strongly dependent on the relative
phases of the interfering waves. Figure. shows an example of interfering wave.

Let us first consider two transverse sinusoidal waves of equal amplitude and
wavelength, which travel in the x direction with the same speed. We take the phase
constant of one wave to be Φ, while the other has Φ= 0. Figure shows two
individual waves y1 and y2 and their sum y1 + y2 at a particular time for the two
cases of Φ nearly 0 (the waves are nearly in phase) and nearly 180° (the waves are
nearly out of phase). You can see by merely adding the individual displacements at
each x that in the first case there is nearly complete reinforcement of the two
waves and the resultant has nearly double the amplitude of the individual
components, whereas in the second case there is nearly complete cancellation at
every point and the resultant amplitude is close to zero. These cases are known,
respectively, as constructive interference and destructive interference.
Let us see how interference arises from the equations for the waves. We consider a
general case in which the two waves have phase constants Φ1 and Φ2, respectively.
The equations of the two waves are,

Now let us find the resultant wave. Using the principle of superposition.

This resultant wave corresponds to a new wave having the same frequency but
with an amplitude 2ymcos (ΔΦ /2). If ΔΦ is very small (close to 0°), the resultant
amplitude is nearly 2ym (as shown in Fig.a. When ΔΦ is zero, the two waves overlap
completely: the crest of one falls on the crest of the other and likewise for the
valleys, which gives total constructive interference. The resultant amplitude is just
twice that of either wave alone. If ΔΦ is close to 180°, on the other hand, the
resultant amplitude is nearly zero (as shown in Fig.b). When ΔΦ is exactly 180°, the
crest of one wave falls exactly on the valley of the other. The resultant amplitude is
zero, corresponding to total destructive interference.
Notice that Eq. 18-40 always has the form of a sinusoidal wave. Thus adding two
sine waves of the same wavelength and amplitude always gives a sine wave of the
identical wavelength. We can also add components that have the same wavelength
but different amplitudes. In this case the resultant again is a sine wave with the
identical wavelength, but the resultant amplitude does not have the simple form
given by Eq. 18-40. If the individual amplitudes are y1m and y2m , then if the waves
are in phase (ΔΦ = 0) the resultant amplitude is y1m + y2m (Fig.),

whereas if they are out of phase ( Φ= 180°) the resultant amplitude is |y1m + y2m|
(Fig.b). There can be no complete destructive interference in this case, although
there is partial destructive interference.

You might also like

pFad - Phonifier reborn

Pfad - The Proxy pFad of © 2024 Garber Painting. All rights reserved.

Note: This service is not intended for secure transactions such as banking, social media, email, or purchasing. Use at your own risk. We assume no liability whatsoever for broken pages.


Alternative Proxies:

Alternative Proxy

pFad Proxy

pFad v3 Proxy

pFad v4 Proxy