Pressure Wave Simulation
Highlights of the activity
- This computer visualization activity is designed to help upper-division undergraduate students visualize the relationship between pressure and displacement waves.
- Students draw the displacement and pressure waves for a specific example and then a use a computer visualization to verify their understanding.
- The whole class discussion focuses on the sign difference in the reflection and transmission coefficients for pressure and displacements waves.
Reasons to spend class time on the activity
Students often don't realize that the derivative of a sinusoidal wave is itself a sinusoidal wave and this activity helps them to visualize this, as well as how a voltage wave is related to how charges in cable move. This activity also helps to demonstrate the sign difference in the reflection and the transmission coefficient for displacement and pressure waves that they will encounter in the Wave Propagation in a Coaxial Cable lab.