Saturday, January 15, 2011

Constructive and Deconstructive Wave Intereference

Interference is the addition of two or more waves that results in a new wave pattern. Interference usually refers to the interaction of waves that are correlated or coherent with each other either because they come from the same source or because they have the same or nearly the same frequency.



Waves don't usually reflect when they strike other waves. Instead, they combine. If the amplitudes of two waves have the same sign (either both positive or both negative), they will add together to form a wave with a larger amplitude. This is called constructive interference. If the two amplitudes have opposite signs, they will subtract to form a combined wave with a lower amplitude. This is called destructive interference.


Sound waves with higher amplitudes sound louder than sound waves with lower amplitudes. Constructive interference will make a sound louder while destructive interference will make a sound quieter.

Two waves that add together may have different frequencies. That means that the crests and troughs won't add up the same way with each new wave because one is moving faster than the other. Part of the waves will interfere constructively and part will interfere destructively.


Energy!!

Energy is the capacity of a system to do work. there are many different forms fo energy. Energy cannot be either created or destroyed. It instead transforms from one form to another. There are many different kinds of energy but however most of them fall under two categories. These two categories are Potential Energy and Kinetic Energy. Now lets look at different kinds of energies.

-Potential Energy is the energy stored in a body or in a system. The SI unit for measurement of energy and work is Joule (J).

-Chemical Energy is the potential of a chemical substance to undergo a transformation through a chemical reaction or to transform other chemical substances.

-Gravitational Energy is energy an object possesses because of its position in a gravitational field.

-Elastic Energy is  stored in objects that are stretched, compressed, bent, or twisted. It is the energy that represents the elastic distortion of a solid or a fluid.

-Kinetic Energy of an object is the energy which it possesses due to its motion. It is defined as the work needed to accelerate a body of a given mass from rest to its velocity. it is the energy described in motions of waves, molecules, objects, substances etc. 

-Mechanical Energy is the energy stored in the movement of the objects. Mechanical energy is created by the physical movement or rotation, revolution etc of anything.

-Thermal Energy is the vibration and the movement of atoms and molecules in a substance. It is the total mechanical energy of the particles in a substance.

-Sound Energy is  a wave of vibrations in a material. It is the movement of energy in materials through different kinds of waves.