Answer to Question #259284 in Classical Mechanics for Tithi

Question

One day a teen boy went out of their house and stood beside a pond. He threw a small rock in the pond relatively far from him and found that a nice wave was coming toward him. He felt a lovely moment. He threw another similar stone in the pond relatively close to him. He found that the first wave was disturbed and was not coming to him smoothly. He tried to understand, ‘why did it happen?’ but failed and become unhappy. How will you explain this incidence in details to the boy to make him so happy? Please mention the principle involved in the incident and explain different cases of its applications.

Answer 1

The principle involved here is the interference of waves. When two waves move toward each other and meet pike to pike, the overall pike becomes higher. When they both meet their crests, the overall crest becomes deeper (both cases are constructive interference). When the pike of one wave meets the crest of another, the wave is destroyed (destructive interference). This is widely used in radio engineering and wireless technologies.