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I'm confused about energy driven by a wave. Consider a sinousoidal wave moving in a rope.
Each element ##dm## of the rope follows a simple harmonic motion in time. That means that the mechanical energy ##dE=dK+dU## of the element ##dm## is constant.
Nevertheless on Halliday-Resnik-Krane I found this explanation.
I really do not see how this can be possible. Is this related to the fact that the energy of a wave is not concentrated in a single point but somehow spread in all the rope continuously?
I would really appreciate some suggestion on this topic. Is the mechanical energy of ##dm## really not constant? If so, what can be an explanation for that?
Each element ##dm## of the rope follows a simple harmonic motion in time. That means that the mechanical energy ##dE=dK+dU## of the element ##dm## is constant.
Nevertheless on Halliday-Resnik-Krane I found this explanation.
Despite the analogies with simple harmonic motion the mechanicalenergy of the element ##dm## is not constant. [...] That's not surprising since the element $dm$ is not an isolated system and its motion is the result of the action of the rest of the rope on it.
I really do not see how this can be possible. Is this related to the fact that the energy of a wave is not concentrated in a single point but somehow spread in all the rope continuously?
I would really appreciate some suggestion on this topic. Is the mechanical energy of ##dm## really not constant? If so, what can be an explanation for that?