Looking out over the sea from South Stack near Holyhead on Anglesey, I was able to see waves being reflected. Looking down, you see the ripple pattern of the peaks of the waves. This is called the wave front. I have drawn them on in black in case you can't pick them out. Huygens favoured the wave front analysis. Isaac Newton prefered to draw rays which show the direction of motion. You can't see motion in a still photograph so I've had to draw them in for you as arrows. Now you can see that plane waves (flat ones) are coming down from the top of the object and reflecting from a circular promontary. If plane waves reflect from a curved object, the reflected wave fronts are curved too.Wednesday, 21 April 2010
Wavefronts on Anglesey
Looking out over the sea from South Stack near Holyhead on Anglesey, I was able to see waves being reflected. Looking down, you see the ripple pattern of the peaks of the waves. This is called the wave front. I have drawn them on in black in case you can't pick them out. Huygens favoured the wave front analysis. Isaac Newton prefered to draw rays which show the direction of motion. You can't see motion in a still photograph so I've had to draw them in for you as arrows. Now you can see that plane waves (flat ones) are coming down from the top of the object and reflecting from a circular promontary. If plane waves reflect from a curved object, the reflected wave fronts are curved too.