Solving the Superposition Problem: Find a3 & Bint

  • Thread starter Thread starter FoolishMortal
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Superposition
FoolishMortal
Messages
2
Reaction score
0
The superposition of two harmonic waves:
u1 = B * sin( a1(r) )
u2 = B * sin( a2(r) )
results in a sinusoidal wave of the form:
uint = Bint * sin( a3(r) )
Find a3 and Bint

I'm not sure what to do. I can't think of any way to get it into that "form". http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/physics/Interference.html (5) on that link gives the form I would expect.
I think the "int" subscript is talking about intensity, and I'm not sure but I don't think either u1 or u2 depend on time.
Can anyone help?
 
Physics news on Phys.org
Use your high school trig (ugh).
uint=u1+u2=B[sin(a)+sin(b)]=2B{sin[(a+b)/2]cos[(a-b)/2]}
if I remembered it right.
 
To solve this, I first used the units to work out that a= m* a/m, i.e. t=z/λ. This would allow you to determine the time duration within an interval section by section and then add this to the previous ones to obtain the age of the respective layer. However, this would require a constant thickness per year for each interval. However, since this is most likely not the case, my next consideration was that the age must be the integral of a 1/λ(z) function, which I cannot model.
Back
Top