Walking sinusoidal as you follow a RF Standing Wave?

jmatejka
Messages
126
Reaction score
1
A friend who was in Civil Air Patrol once told me he was using some RF Locator equipment and was "homing in" on a target.

His walking path to the target was sinusoidal because of the wavelength of the frequency used. He said he was literally walking the wave....

Standing wave, I assume?

Or was his imagination getting the better of him?

Is this possible with the right frequency?
 
Physics news on Phys.org
EM waves travel in straight line (unless they are continuously being reflected/refracted/scattered) and not sinusoidal. If you want to follow an EM wave you have to travel in straight line with the speed of light. The sinusoidal shape you see in a graphical representation of wave is representing the amplitudes of the electric and/or magnetic field at the various points in space, it is not how the EM wave travels in space.
 
  • Like
Likes   Reactions: 1 person
A standing wave is not propagating...It's a stationary oscillation of the object (of the magnetic and electric field in case of EM waves).
Then what Delta2 said
 
ChrisVer said:
A standing wave is not propagating...It's a stationary oscillation of the object (of the magnetic and electric field in case of EM waves).
Then what Delta2 said

That standing wave is between 2 points? Could it be between a transmitter and a mountain, water tower, etc, etc?

The nodes are/or can be fixed in that stationary oscillation?
 

Similar threads

  • · Replies 2 ·
Replies
2
Views
4K
  • · Replies 9 ·
Replies
9
Views
2K
  • · Replies 4 ·
Replies
4
Views
5K
  • · Replies 1 ·
Replies
1
Views
4K
  • · Replies 4 ·
Replies
4
Views
5K
  • · Replies 3 ·
Replies
3
Views
3K
  • · Replies 3 ·
Replies
3
Views
4K
Replies
9
Views
4K
  • · Replies 1 ·
Replies
1
Views
2K
  • · Replies 5 ·
Replies
5
Views
3K