Chapter 11 Travelling Waves and Interference

In the chapter on Oscillatory Motion and Simple Harmonic Motion, you saw several examples of oscillations. In this chapter, you will see another example of an oscillation: travelling waves. A guitar creates sound waves. You can make water waves in a swimming pool by slapping the water with your hand. You can no doubt think of other types of waves. Some, such as water waves, are visible. Some, such as sound waves, are not. But every wave is a disturbance that moves from its source and carries energy. Other examples of waves include earthquakes and visible light. Even subatomic particles, such as electrons, can behave like waves. After introducing the idea of a travelling wave, we will explore what happens when two or more waves share the same space, in the phenomena known as superposition and interference.