BRAINCAKESuperposition
When two or more waves meet at a point, they do not bounce off each other. Instead they overlap, and the principle of superposition tells you what happens:
When two or more waves meet, the resultant displacement at any point is the vector sum of the displacements of the individual waves at that point.
Displacements above the equilibrium position count as positive and those below count as negative, so you must add them with their signs.
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More in Waves
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- Earthquakes
- Phase and Phase Difference
- Interference
- Progressive Waves
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All 22 lessons in Waves · All Edexcel AS-level Physics topics