Stationary Waves

Sections 6.4.1-6.4.3 examined superposition quite generally -- two wave PULSES moving in either the same or opposite senses, and then two continuous waves of the same frequency differing by an arbitrary constant phase $\phi$ at a fixed point. This section turns to one particular, especially important special case of that general result: two waves of the SAME amplitude and the SAME frequency, travelling in EXACTLY OPPOSITE directions along the same path through a medium. Superposing such a pair produces a STATIONARY (or standing) wave -- the subject developed through the rest of this section, and the phys …