Understanding the Amplitude Difference in Spherical and Plane Waves

  • Thread starter Thread starter kasse
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Waves
kasse
Messages
383
Reaction score
1
Why is it that the amplitude of an harmonic spherical wave decreases with increasing r, while this is not the case for an harmonic plane wave?
 
Physics news on Phys.org
I don't know what those are, but maybe the spherical wave spreads its energy in all directions, while the plane wave conserves the energy by moving in 1 direction.
 
That's right spherical waves are moving in all directions as we define it spherical coordinates.But plane waves like sound are move in 1 direction and go towards that direciton.
 

Thread 'Initial conditions for orbits around a wormhole'

Hi, I had an exam and I completely messed up a problem. Especially one part which was necessary for the rest of the problem. Basically, I have a wormhole metric: $$(ds)^2 = -(dt)^2 + (dr)^2 + (r^2 + b^2)( (d\theta)^2 + sin^2 \theta (d\phi)^2 )$$ Where ##b=1## with an orbit only in the equatorial plane. We also know from the question that the orbit must satisfy this relationship: $$\varepsilon = \frac{1}{2} (\frac{dr}{d\tau})^2 + V_{eff}(r)$$ Ultimately, I was tasked to find the initial...
View full post »

Thread 'Help to convert units of a simple formula'

The value of H equals ## 10^{3}## in natural units, According to : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_units, ## t \sim 10^{-21} sec = 10^{21} Hz ##, and since ## \text{GeV} \sim 10^{24} \text{Hz } ##, ## GeV \sim 10^{24} \times 10^{-21} = 10^3 ## in natural units. So is this conversion correct? Also in the above formula, can I convert H to that natural units , since it’s a constant, while keeping k in Hz ?
View full post »

Similar threads

Reverse engineering formulas for directing a plane wave
Replies
5
Views
2K
What Are the Key Characteristics of Inertial Waves in Uniform Rotation?
Replies
2
Views
2K
Scattering for the finite square well
Replies
9
Views
760
Electromagnetic plane waves from a current sheet
Replies
1
Views
2K
Maximizing Localization in Adding Multiple Plane Waves
Replies
3
Views
2K
General solution of the spherical wave equation
Replies
20
Views
3K
I Is E/B = c for spherical EM Wave in Vacuum?
Replies
10
Views
2K
Normal incidence of a plane polarized wave through multiple mediums
Replies
3
Views
1K
Express wave function in spherical harmonics
Replies
3
Views
8K
Time-Dependent Wave Function of Spherical Harmonics
Replies
1
Views
2K

Hot Threads

Recent Insights

Back
Top