Recent content by petermer

Ok, but how is this tremendous force generated from the atoms?

It just occurred to me: when a traveling wave approaches a certain point in the medium, the point remains still. When the wave reaches the point however, it instantly accelerates to maximum velocity. How does this happen? Where does this huge force come from? Is the time needed for the point to...

But how can the inverse square law hold when talking about a line?

Ok, you all covered my question, thanks. I've got another relevant question though: Do parabolic antennae (in vacuum) have zero spreading, thus zero energy loss on a path that crosses the source point?

Yes, I can understand that. However, what happens when we measure the energy of points that lie on a line which crosses the E/M wave's source? Won't we spot a reduction of energy as we move further away the source?

Ok, got it now. But, speaking for a path, as the wave propagates, it does lose energy, doesn't it?

So that makes the equation Propagation Constant = Phase Contant*i. Does this explain a point's energy loss as the E/M wave spreads out?

But what about http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free-space_path_loss" ? Isn't the spreading out of an E/M Wave considered to be a type of attenuation?

Hi, I am just curious; do EM waves attenuate in a vacuum? If yes, how does this happen? Also, how do they faint through a medium?

Well, I'm just saying that if two x's have an even number of nodes between them, the phase inside the sine is 2\pi \frac{t}{T} if their y's are positive, or 2\pi \frac{t}{T} + \pi if their y's are negative. So they have a phase difference of 0. On the other hand, when the two x's have an odd...

Homework Statement We have the standard standing wave equation, y=2Acos(2\pi \frac{x}{\lambda})sin(2\pi \frac{t}{T}). We must prove that if two x-positions on the wave have an even number of nodes between them, they have a phase difference of 0, whereas in the opposite condition, they have a...

Ok, I certainly agree with that. But it is a fact that the function lnx is a very slow function, meaning it converges to infinity (as x goes to infinity) with a very slow rate. I understand that I do not have a series here, but would like to know if there is a similar method to the rate of...

I do know it's limit, but I'm trying to find the rate (name it 'velocity') with which this function converges to it's limit, infinity. I'm referring to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rate_of_convergence" Wikipedia article. There, for example, it is mentioned that the sequence 1/2^x converges to...

For example, I'd like to find the rate of convergence of lnx as it approaches infinity.

Hi to all! I'm new to calculus and would like to know how to find the rate of convergence for a function. I'm aware of the Wikipedia article, but it only defines it for a sequence. So, what is the general definition?