Sine waves

1. May 18, 2004

Imparcticle

Are sine waves the waves that are theoretically deemed to be the waves [naturally] emitted by all matter? Or am I getting them confused with something else?

2. May 18, 2004

arildno

No, but you may write an arbitrary (plane) wave signal as a sum of sine and cosine waves (Fourier analysis).
Bessel functions occurs more naturally if radial/spherical damping is present.

Last edited: May 18, 2004
3. May 18, 2004

TeV

Imparcticle,arildno,
Elementar quanta (ie. photons) of EM radiation propagates in pure sine (or cosine if you like) mode.On other hand,Maxwell electodynamics allow any shape of changeable wave-supporting function from the accelerated source as arildno indicated..
To extend this picture further,it is appropriate to say it is even true for real macroscopic raditions from QED standpoint to be consisted of many elemantar quanta that can superimpose in various ways and form arbitrary wave forms in the spirit of the Maxwell's theory.How close classical electrodynamics in this case can match quantum picture depends in first place on the strenght of the considered field.

4. May 18, 2004

zhana

Is it suggested that elementar photons travel and look like sine waves?

5. May 18, 2004

TeV

No!!
I was just reffering to the math forms of type (e^a)(sinx)(e^-a)(sin-x) that reflect some properties of photons people are familiar with.
Whole QM properties* (arising from quantum theory formalism too) make the "visualisation" of photon quant phenomena almost impossible for humans I suppose.Matter of fact I hold the question "How photon looks like?" doesn't make any sense.
cheers
____
* locality ,probability etc.

6. May 19, 2004

Imparcticle

So are sine waves emitted by all matter or not?

7. May 19, 2004

TeV

The question is again on the "edge" of regularity.Quantum physics description of wave package of a photon ,as always,includes oscillatory terms,but photon locallity being the problem .So attenuation.Wave function even admits the interpretation photon potentialy spreads over entire universe.
It's a controversy of quantum theory-you can't know a complete info.
You may force one characteristics ,but lossing another.
Like in my post up I forced the frequency .Btw,last term in product was error due to too quick typing :it should be $$sin(\pi/2 -x)$$ not (sin-x) in order to generate sine function again).Methodology relates nothing specific-just math operative method that reflect property of the frequency.In bottom line there was allusion to old Huygens principle of wave and QM interpretation of the same phenomenon.

cheers

8. May 19, 2004

krab

No. Sine waves are mathematical objects. Matter is physical. So your question makes no sense. A sensible question would be: are such-and-such type of physical waves accurately represented as sine waves?