MIA6 said:What is a wavefront? Huygen's principle says that every point on a wavefront acts as a source of wave with the same speed. Now I am not asking you what that means, but i don't understand what a wavefront is. Is that like a circle? But wave is usually like a sine or cosine graph, so what's the relations between them. thanks.
mgb_phys said:Think of each individual wave as looking like a sin curve.
A wavefront is a set of waves side by side.
Consider a boat going up and down in a harbour it makes individual waves that all travel out at the same speed, the wavefront is the perimeter of this expanding 'front' of waves.
Huygens principle says that when you are considering how any of the waves on the wavefront interact with anything else you don;t have to wory about how they were created or got there - you can think of the source of each wave beign on the wavefront.
MIA6 said:Do you know what a spherical wave is?
rootX said:they are the one that are produced in water when you drop a stone in the water.
they have wavefronts but those wavefronts are circular.
lightgrav said:the FRONT of a wave is the place
where the material is (first) disturbed
away from its equilibrium situation.
The disturbance ALWAYS propagates
perpendicular to the wave front.
*circular* wave fronts are 1-dimensional arcs
that move outward and cover a 2-d surface
. . . like water wave ripples.
*spherical* wave fronts are 2-d shells
in a 3-d volume ... sound from a hand-clap, for example.
MIA6 said:What do you mean by 1-dimensional? a line?
A wavefront is an imaginary surface that connects all the points of a wave that are in the same phase or have the same amplitude. It represents the crest or trough of a wave as it propagates through a medium.
A wavefront can be represented by a sine or cosine graph, also known as a sinusoidal wave. This is because the shape of a sine or cosine graph is similar to the shape of a wavefront, with its crests and troughs.
The shape of a wavefront can tell us about the direction, speed, and frequency of a wave. For example, a wavefront that is circular or spherical indicates that the wave is propagating in all directions, while a flat wavefront suggests that the wave is traveling in a straight line.
A wavefront is an imaginary surface that represents the shape and direction of a wave, while a wave is a physical disturbance that propagates through a medium. In other words, a wavefront is a visual representation of a wave.
Yes, a wavefront can be used to predict the behavior of a wave. By analyzing the shape and direction of a wavefront, we can determine how a wave will interact with obstacles or other waves in its path.