Engineering Physics

Course Code: BPHY101L; Course Type: Theory Only (TH)

Dr. Sandeep Chakraborty

Assistant Professor (Grade 2)
Department of Physics
School of Advanced Sciences (SAS)
Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore Campus
E-mail: [email protected]
Phone: +91-9080717749
Information to Students
Module:1 Introduction to waves
“To understand a wide range of physical phenomena including light and the wave
properties of matter including electrons and atoms”

Major aim to understand:

Classification of waves based on their broad physical properties (mechanical waves,

water waves, EM waves, sound waves and matter waves).
Discussion based on other criteria: longitudinal, transverse and mixed waves.
Further classification based on dimensionality: 1-D, 2-D and 3-D waves)

Reference: Chapter 5, Section 5.2 from 'The Physics of Vibrations and Waves’, 1st Edition, H J Pain
and P Rankin, John Wiley and Sons Ltd, 2015
Module: 1 Books

As suggested by Department of Physics, SAS, VIT-Vellore Campus

Information to Students

Module:1 Introduction to waves

 Introduction to Waves
✓ In physical world, there are two ways in which the energy can be transported from one
place to other
A. By actual transportation of matter
Example: A bullet fired from a firearm carries its kinetic energy as it travels to the
other location

B. The second method by which one can transport energy is much more important and
useful. It involves what are known as WAVES.
Uniqueness: The waves transfer energy but there may not be any transportation of
matter in the process.

Definition:
“A classical wave is a self-sustaining disturbance of a medium, which moves through
space transporting energy and momentum”
………Eugene Hetch, Optics, Fifth Ed.
 Introduction to Waves
✓ Wave formation and propagation
Water waves
❖ Let us first consider the example of water wave, which is
the most familiar kind of wave that we can generate and
observe easily.
❖ When we drop a stone (or touch water) in a lake or a water
tub, we observe circular ripples that spread out from the
point where the stone strikes the water surface, as shown in
the figure.
❖ Looking at these ripples, you may wrongly get an
impression that water moves with them. But, if you
observe carefully, you will notice that water actually does
not move along with the ripples that are generated.
❖ You can easily verify this fact by placing a paper boat or a dry leaf on the water surface and
observing how it moves. You will notice that the paper boat or the dry leaf just bounces up and
down at the same place on the surface of water and does not move with the ripples.
❖ This means that water particles do not have any translational motion.
❖ However, water particles do undergo oscillatory motion caused due to dropping of the stone in the
still water. The disturbance caused at the point of contact of the stone with water surface is
progressively transferred to adjacent water particles due to the oscillatory motion.
 Introduction to Waves
✓ Wave formation and propagation
Mechanical waves
We can produce a mechanical wave using a thin and long elastic string with its one end
fixed to a wall.
Wave on a String 1.1.23 (colorado.edu)
 Introduction to Waves
✓ Wave formation and propagation
From the above descriptions of waves, one may conclude that:
▪ A wave is generated due to two simultaneous, at the same time, distinct motions. The first one is
the oscillatory motion of the particles of the medium and the second is the linear motion of the
disturbance.
▪ In wave motion, the propagation of a disturbance does not take place due to the physical movement
of the particles in the medium. The disturbance actually propagates because of the transfer of
energy from one particle to the other progressively. Thus, we may conclude that the waves
transport energy and not the matter.

The oscillations of the particle of a Spring-mass system

medium and the propagation of
wave in the medium are intimately
connected.
 Introduction to Waves

❖ Most mechanical waves are due to a series of linked oscillators. The oscillators
oscillate about their equilibrium points in space with the disturbance being
transmitted by the linkage between the oscillators.
 Classification of Waves
✓ Transverse Waves
❖ The particles of the medium oscillate perpendicular to the direction in which the wave
travels.
❖ Travelling waves on a taut string, the disturbance propagates along the length of the rope
but the particles oscillate up and down.
❖ Secondary seismic waves are an example of transverse waves. They travel more slowly
than the primary seismic waves. Secondary seismic waves shake the material they travel
through from side to side. Transverse waves require that there should be a shearing force in
the medium. Hence, they can be propagated only in the medium which will support a
shearing stress, i.e. mainly solids. For this reason, mechanical transverse waves cannot
pass though a liquid because liquid molecules slide past each other.
❖ Exception: Electromagnetic waves, which do not require any medium to propagate, are
also an example of transverse waves. The electric and the magnetic field of an
electromagnetic wave vibrate at right angles to the direction of propagation and also at
right angles to each other.
 Classification of Waves
✓ Longitudinal Waves
❖ In longitudinal waves, the oscillation of the particles is parallel to the direction in
which the wave travels
Example: Stretched Spring

Compressions, which is the crowding together of the

molecules, and rarefactions, which is the spreading out of
the molecules away from each other, travel along the
spring. The pressure at the compression point is higher and
the pressure at a rarefaction point is lower

If one end of the spring is suddenly given an in and out oscillation

parallel to the length of the spring, the coils of the spring start
exerting forces on each other and the compression and the
expansion points travel along the length of the spring. The coils
oscillate right and left parallel to the spring as shown
 Classification of Waves
✓ Longitudinal Waves

Example: Sound Waves

❖ A loudspeaker supplied with alternating

current creates sound waves because the
diaphragm of the loudspeaker is forced to
move to and fro.
❖ The diaphragm compresses the
surrounding air in front of it as it moves
forward and then it moves back before
creating another compression.
❖ Effectively, the air which is the medium of
propagation in this case, moves to and fro
as the sound waves pass through it.
 Classification of Waves
✓ Mixed Waves
❖ Waves in solids/seismic waves

❖ Since the Earth or any other planetary body can be considered to be an elastic object, it will support the
propagation of traveling waves.
❖ The Earth's crust as a solid object will support waves through the crust called body waves and on the
surface (surface waves). In a solid material these waves can be either longitudinal waves, or transverse
waves.
❖ For seismic waves through the bulk material the longitudinal or compressional waves are called P
waves (for "primary" waves) whereas the transverse waves are callled S waves ("secondary" waves)
❖ Since any material, solid or liquid (fluid) is subject to compression, the P waves can travel through any
kind of material. However, S waves depend upon a resistance to transverse or "shear" force which does
not exist in a liquid or gas medium, so they can only travel in the solid parts of the Earth.
 Classification of Waves
✓ Mixed Waves
❖ Waves in solids/seismic waves
 Classification of Waves
✓ Travelling Waves:

❖ These are the waves that propagate through time and space.
❖ Crests and troughs of the waves move down the rope, and if the rope were infinitely
long such waves would be called progressive waves – these are waves travelling in an
unbounded medium free from possible reflection.
❖ Examples: Electromagnetic waves, sound waves, water waves etc.
 Classification of Waves
✓ Standing Waves:
❖ Standing waves, or stationary waves, remain in a constant position with crests and
troughs in fixed intervals.

❖ If the medium is limited in extent, for example, if the rope were reduced to a violin
string, fixed at both ends, the progressive waves travelling on the string would be
reflected at both ends; the vibration of the string would then be the combination of
such waves moving to and fro along the string and standing waves would be
formed.
 Wave Properties

Wave Speed: The speed of a wave is

the distance it covers in one second.
It is different from the particle
speed.

Wave Frequency (f): The frequency with which the particles of the medium (through which the wave is
passing) oscillate is known as wave frequency. In transverse waves, frequency is the number of crests (or
troughs) that pass through a point in one second. In longitudinal waves, frequency is the number of
compressions (or rarefactions) that pass through a point in one second. The SI unit of frequency is hertz
(Hz), which is equal to 1 cycle per second.
Time Period (T) : The time period of the oscillation of the particles in the medium is the time period of
the wave and is depicted in the Figure. It is denoted by the symbol T. The frequency of a wave is the
reciprocal of the time period, i.e. f = 1/T.

Amplitude (A): The amplitude of the wave is equal to the maximum positive displacement of the
particles from their mean position. Thus, the amplitude of the wave is the same as the amplitude of the
oscillating particles.
 Wave Properties
Wavelength (λ):

The distance between any two points in the same state of motion defines the
wavelength of a wave. Physically, this means that the wavelength is equal to the
distance between two consecutive crests (or troughs).
The wave speed is given by
λ
𝑉=
𝑇

Since, the frequency f of a wave is the reciprocal of its period T, the above equation can
also be written as

𝑉 = 𝑓λ
Plane waves are very often considered in wave optics as well as in other areas where waves
play a role. They are the kind of waves with the simplest geometric form and mathematical
description. By definition, they have plane wavefronts: at any moment of time, the
locations of constant phase are planes. Plane waves are satisfying wave equations in
homogeneous media or in free space; therefore, one can say that plane waves are free-space
modes.

When we see wave motion as a series

of crests and troughs we are in fact
observing the vibrational motion of
the individual oscillators in the
medium, and in particular all of those
oscillators in a plane of the medium
which, at the instant of observation,
have the same phase in their
vibrations.

Sinusoidal Plane Waves

Same phase for all the oscillating
particles in the same plane
 Classification of Waves: Based on Dimensionality

✓ One Dimensional (1-D) Waves

Example: Wave on a string

✓ Two Dimensional (2-D) Waves

Example: Surface of water

✓ Three Dimensional (3-D) Waves

Example: Sounds from a bell
 Classification of Waves: Based on Dimensionality

✓ Two Dimensional (2-D) Waves

✓ This kind of waves can move around the corners
Examples: Water surface waves are visible 2D waves;

✓ Rayleigh waves is also an example of 2D waves

❖ Rayleigh waves occur on the surface of elastic media

❖ Rayleigh waves are formed when the particle motion is a

combination of both longitudinal and transverse vibration giving
rise to an elliptical retrograde motion in the vertical plane along
the direction of travel.
 Classification of Waves: Based on Dimensionality
Diaphragm Walls/Piles

✓ Three Dimensional (3-D) Waves

❖ Waves traveling in diaphragm walls or piles include different
clusters of waves, usually named guided waves.
❖ Guided waves are mechanical stress waves that propagate contained within the structural boundaries
of pipes or plates with wavelengths that are comparable to the thickness dimensions of the pipe or
plate. Guided waves are used in rapid testing or Screening tools to detect, locate and classify corrosion
defects.
❖ These three-dimensional (3-D) wave clusters arise from the incidences and reflections of a variety of
compression, shear, and surface waves along the boundaries of foundation structures.
❖ The wave velocity is a function of frequency, and the displacement magnitudes vary along the wall or
pile cross-section.
❖ A three-dimensional wave propagating in a traction-free plate
typically is called Rayleigh-Lamb waves (or Lamb waves).
❖ A panel extends infinitely in the y and z directions and has
thickness 2b in the x direction, as shown in the Figure.
❖ The key physical property of three-dimensional waves is group
velocity
Cs: Shear wave velocity https://www.researchgate.net/publication/2421
Cg: Group velocity 00387_An_Experimental_Research_on_Three-
Dimensional_Waves_in_a_Concrete_Panel
 Simple Harmonic Motion/Oscillator

Sinusoidal displacement of simple harmonic oscillator with time, showing variation of starting
point in cycle in terms of phase angle φ

Displacement in SHM:
𝑥 = asin(ω𝑡 + Φ)
Where “a” is the amplitude; “ω” angular frequency; “φ” phase constant

The maximum value of sin (ωt+φ) is unity so the constant “a” is the maximum value of
x, known as the amplitude of displacement. The limiting values of sin (ωt+φ) are ±1 so
the system will oscillate between the values of x = ± a.
** The word “phase” is used to describe a specific location within a given cycle of a
periodic wave.