All Topics  
List of wave topics

 

   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link






 

List of wave topics



 
 
This is a list of wave
Wave

A wave is a disturbance that propagates through space and time, usually with transference of energy. While a mechanical wave exists in a medium , waves of electromagnetic radiation can travel through vacuum, that is, without a medium....
 topics
.








Discussion
Ask a question about 'List of wave topics'
Start a new discussion about 'List of wave topics'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


This is a list of wave
Wave

A wave is a disturbance that propagates through space and time, usually with transference of energy. While a mechanical wave exists in a medium , waves of electromagnetic radiation can travel through vacuum, that is, without a medium....
 topics
.

0–9


  • 21 cm line


A

  • Abbe prism
    Abbe prism

    In optics, an Abbe prism, named for its inventor, the German physicist Ernst Abbe, is a type of constant deviation dispersion prism similar to a Pellin-Broca prism....
  • absorption spectrum
    Absorption spectrum

    A material's absorption spectrum shows the fraction of incident electromagnetic radiation absorption by the material over a range of frequencies....
  • acoustics
    Acoustics

    Acoustics is the interdisciplinary science that deals with the study of sound, ultrasound and infrasound . A scientist who works in the field of acoustics is an acoustician....
  • Airy disc
    Airy disc

    In optics, the Airy disk and Airy pattern are descriptions of the best focused spot of light that a perfect lens with a circular aperture can make, limited by the diffraction of light....
  • Airy wave theory
    Airy wave theory

    In fluid dynamics, Airy wave theory gives a linear system description of the wave propagation of ocean surface wave on the surface of a homogeneous fluid layer....
  • Alfvén wave
    Alfvén wave

    An Alfv?n wave, named after Hannes Alfv?n, is a type of Magnetohydrodynamics wave....
  • Alpha waves
    Alpha Waves

    Alpha Waves is an early 3D computer graphics game that combines labyrinthine exploration with platform game. By most definitions of the genre it could be considered to be the first 3D platform game, released in 1990, 6 years before the genre's seminal classic Super Mario 64....
  • amphidromic point
    Amphidromic point

    An amphidromic point is a point within a tidal system where the tidal range is almost zero.Amphidromic points occur because of the coriolis effect and interference within oceanic basins, seas and Headlands and bayss creating a wave pattern ? called an amphidromic system ? which rotates around the amphidromic point....
  • amplitude
    Amplitude

    Amplitude is the magnitude of change in the oscillating variable, with each oscillation, within an oscillating system. For instance, sound waves are oscillations in atmospheric pressure and their amplitudes are proportional to the change in pressure during one oscillation....
  • amplitude modulation
    Amplitude modulation

    Amplitude modulation is a technique used in electronic communication, most commonly for transmitting information via a radio carrier wave....
  • analog sound vs. digital sound
    Analog sound vs. digital sound

    Analog sound versus digital sound compares the two ways in which sound is audio recording and stored. Actual sound waves consist of continuous variations in air pressure....
  • animal echolocation
    Animal echolocation

    Echolocation, also called biosonar, is the biological sonar used by several animals such as dolphins, shrews, most bats, and most whales....
  • antiphase
  • artificial wave
    Artificial wave

    Artificial waves are man-made Ocean surface waves usually created on a specially designed surface or in a Swimming pool.Artificial waves are created in one or two ways....
  • atmospheric diffraction
    Atmospheric diffraction

    d>Atmospheric diffraction is manifested in the following principal ways:* Fourier optics is the bending of light rays in the atmosphere, which results in remarkable visual displays of astronomy objects, such as depictions on this page....
  • atmospheric wave
    Atmospheric wave

    An atmospheric wave is a periodic disturbance in the fields of atmospheric variables which may either propagate or not . Atmospheric waves range in spatial and temporal scale from large-scale planetary waves to minute sound waves....
  • atmospheric waveguide
    Atmospheric waveguide

    An atmospheric waveguide is an Earth's atmosphere flow feature that improves the propagation of certain atmospheric waves.The effect arises because wave parameters such as group velocity or vertical wavenumber depend on mean flow direction and strength....
  • audience wave
    Audience wave

    The wave , is achieved in a packed stadium when successive groups of spectators briefly stand and raise their arms. Each spectator is required to rise at the same time as those straight in front and behind, and slightly after the person immediately to either the right or the left ....


B

  • Babinet's principle
    Babinet's principle

    In physics, Babinet's principle is a theorem concerning diffraction that states that the diffraction pattern from an opaque body is identical to that from a hole of the same size and shape except for the overall forward beam intensity....
  • Bandwidth-limited pulse
    Bandwidth-limited pulse

    A bandwidth-limited pulse is a pulse of a wave that has the minimum possible duration for a given power spectrum Bandwidth . Optics pulses of this type can be generated by modelocking lasers....
  • beat
    Beat (acoustics)

    In acoustics, a beat is an interference between two sounds of slightly different frequency, perceived as periodic variations in volume whose rate is the difference between the two frequencies....
  • Berry phase
  • Bloch wave
    Bloch wave

    A Bloch wave or Bloch state, named after Felix Bloch, is the wavefunction of a particle placed in a Particle in a one-dimensional lattice ....
  • Blueshift
  • Boussinesq approximation (water waves)
    Boussinesq approximation (water waves)

    In fluid dynamics, the Boussinesq approximation for water waves is an approximation valid for weakly non-linear and #Linear frequency dispersion....
  • Bragg diffraction
    Bragg diffraction

    Bragg diffraction was first proposed by William Lawrence Bragg and William Henry Bragg in 1913 in response to their discovery that crystalline solids produced surprising patterns of reflected X-rays ....
  • Bragg's law
    Bragg's law

    In physics, Bragg's law is the result of experiments into the diffraction of X-rays or neutron diffraction off crystal surfaces at certain angles, derived by physicist William Lawrence Bragg in 1912 and first presented on 1912-11-11 to the Cambridge Philosophical Society....
  • Breaking wave
    Breaking wave

    In physics, a breaking wave is a wave whose amplitude reaches a critical level at which some process can suddenly start to occur that causes large amounts of wave energy to be dissipated....
  • Brillouin scattering
    Brillouin scattering

    Brillouin scattering, named for L?on Brillouin, occurs when light in a medium interacts with time dependent density variations and changes its energy and path....
  • Bullet bow shockwave
    Bullet bow shockwave

    A bullet bow shockwave is a physical and audible wave created in the air when a bullet travels at supersonic speeds; meaning faster than the speed of sound....
  • Business cycle
    Business cycle

    The term business cycle or economic cycle refers to economy-wide fluctuations in production or economic activity over several months or years, around a long-term growth trend....


C

  • capillary wave
    Capillary wave

    A capillary wave is a wave travelling along the interface between two fluids, whose dynamics are dominated by the effects of surface tension....
  • carrier wave
    Carrier wave

    In telecommunications, a carrier wave, or carrier is a waveform that is Modulation with an signal for the purpose of conveying information....
  • Ernst Chladni
    Ernst Chladni

    Ernst Florens Friedrich Chladni was a Germany physics and music.Chladni was born in Wittenberg. His important works include research on oscillation plates and the calculation of the speed of sound for different gases....
  • chirp
    Chirp

    A chirp is a signal in which the frequency increases or decreases with time. It is commonly used in sonar and radar, but has other applications, such as in spread spectrum communications....
  • circular polarization
    Circular polarization

    In electrodynamics, circular polarization of electromagnetic radiation is a polarization such that the tip of the electric field vector, at a fixed point in space, describes a circle as time progresses....
  • clapotis
    Clapotis

    In hydrodynamics, the clapotis is a non-breaking standing wave pattern, caused for example, by the reflection of a traveling surface wave train from a near vertical shoreline like a Breakwater , seawall or steep cliff....
  • closed waveguide
  • coherence (physics)
    Coherence (physics)

    In physics, coherence is a property of waves, that enables stationary interference. More generally, coherence describes all correlation properties between physical quantities of a wave....
  • coherence length
    Coherence length

    In physics, coherence length is the wave propagation distance from a coherence source to a point where an electromagnetic wave maintains a specified degree of coherence....
  • coherence time
    Coherence time

    For an electromagnetic wave, the coherence time is the time over which a propagating wave may be considered coherence . In other words, it is the time interval within which its phase is, on average, predictable....
  • collimated light
    Collimated light

    Collimated light is light whose ray are nearly parallel, and therefore will spread slowly as it propagates. The word is derived from "collinear" and implies light that does not disperse with distance , or that will disperse minimally ....
  • Compton effect
  • continuous phase modulation
    Continuous phase modulation

    Continuous phase modulation is a method for frequency modulation of data commonly used in wireless modems. In contrast to other coherent digital phase modulation techniques where the carrier wave phase...
  • continuous wave
    Continuous wave

    A continuous wave or continuous waveform is an electromagnetic wave of constant amplitude and frequency; and in mathematical analysis, of infinite duration....
  • cutoff wavelength
  • cymatics
    Cymatics

    Cymatics is the study of wave phenomena. It is typically associated with the physical patterns produced through the interaction of sound waves in a medium....


D

  • De Broglie hypothesis
    De Broglie hypothesis

    In physics, the matter wave, aka de Broglie wave , is the wave-like nature of all matter . The de Broglie relations show that the wavelength is inversely proportional to the momentum of a particle and that the frequency is directly proportional to the particle's kinetic energy....
  • decollimation
  • delta wave
    Delta wave

    A delta wave is a high amplitude brain wave with a frequency of 1?4 Hertz which can be recorded with an Electroencephalography and is usually associated with slow-wave sleep....
  • dielectric waveguide
  • diffraction
    Diffraction

    Diffraction is normally taken to refer to various phenomena which occur when a wave encounters an obstacle. It is described as the apparent bending of waves around small obstacles and the spreading out of waves past small openings....
  • direction finding
    Direction finding

    Direction finding refers to the establishment of the direction from which a received signal was transmitted. This can refer to radio or other forms of wireless communication....
  • dispersion (optics)
    Dispersion (optics)

    In optics, dispersion is the phenomenon in which the phase velocity of a wave depends on its frequency.Media having such a property are termed dispersive media....
  • dispersion (water waves)
    Dispersion (water waves)

    In fluid dynamics, dispersion of ocean surface wave generally refers to frequency dispersion. Frequency dispersion means that waves of different wavelengths travel at different phase speeds....
  • dispersion relation
    Dispersion relation

    Dispersion relations describe the ways that wave propagation varies with the wavelength or frequency of a wave . This variation has long explained how white light is dispersed into different colors, thus making rainbows possible....
  • dominant wavelength
    Dominant wavelength

    In color, the dominant wavelength and complementary wavelength are ways of describing non-spectral light mixtures in terms of the Color#Spectral versus non-spectral colors light that evokes an identical perception of hue....
  • Doppler effect
    Doppler effect

    The Doppler effect , named after Austrian physicist Christian Doppler who proposed it in 1842, is the change in frequency and wavelength of a wave for an observer moving relative to the source of the waves....
  • Doppler radar
    Doppler radar

    A doppler radar is a radar using the doppler effect of the returned echoes from targets to measure their radial velocity. To be more specific the microwave signal sent by the radar antenna's directional beam is reflected toward the radar and compared in frequency, up or down from the original signal, allowing for the direct and highly accur...
  • Draupner wave
    Draupner wave

    The Draupner wave or New Year's wave is the name of the first rogue wave to be detected by a measuring instrument, occurring at the Draupner oil platform in the North Sea off the coast of Norway on January 1, 1995....
  • Douglas Sea Scale
    Douglas Sea Scale

    The Douglas Sea Scale is a scale which measures the height of the waves and also measures the swell of the sea. The scale is very simple to follow....


E

  • e-skip
  • echo (phenomenon)
    Echo (phenomenon)

    In audio signal processing and acoustics, an echo is a Reflection of sound, arriving at the listener some time after the direct sound. Typical examples are the echo produced by the bottom of a well, by a building, or by the walls of an enclosed room....
  • echolocation
    Echolocation

    Echolocation may refer to:* Acoustic location, the general use of sound to locate objects* Animal echolocation, non-human animals emitting sound waves and listening to the echo in order to locate objects or navigate...
  • echo sounding
    Echo sounding

    Echo sounding is the technique of using sound pulses directed from the surface or from a submarine vertically down to measure the distance to the bottom by means of sound waves....
  • electromagnetic wave
  • electromagnetic wave cut-off
  • Elliott wave
  • elliptical polarization
    Elliptical polarization

    In electrodynamics, elliptical polarization is the polarization of electromagnetic radiation such that the tip of the electric field vector describes an ellipse in any fixed plane intersecting, and Surface normal to, the direction of propagation....
  • essential bandwidth
    Essential bandwidth

    In signal processing, the essential bandwidth is the portion of a signal spectrum in the frequency domain which contains most of the energy of the signal....
  • evanescent wave
    Evanescent wave

    An evanescent wave is a Near and far field wave exhibiting exponential decay with distance. Evanescent waves are always associated with matter, and are most intense within one-third wavelength from any acoustical, optical, or electromagnetic transducer....
  • extremely low frequency
    Extremely low frequency

    Extremely low frequency is the band of radio frequencies from 3 to 30 Hertz, at one time used by the United States and Soviet Navy/Russian Navy to Communication with submarines....


F

  • F wave
    F wave

    In neuroscience, an F wave is the second of two voltage changes observed after electrical stimulation is applied to the skin surface above the distal region of a nerve....
  • Faraday wave
    Faraday wave

    Faraday waves, also known as Faraday ripples, are nonlinearity standing waves that appear on liquids enclosed by a vibrating receptacle. They are named after Michael Faraday, who first described them in an appendix to an article in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London in 1831....
  • Fraunhofer diffraction
    Fraunhofer diffraction

    In optics, Fraunhofer diffraction, or far-field diffraction, is a form of wave diffraction that occurs when field waves are passed through an aperture or slit causing only the size of an observed aperture image to changedue to the far-field location of observation and the increasingly planar nature of outgoing diffracted waves passing t...
  • freak wave
    Freak wave

    Rogue waves are relatively large and spontaneous ocean surface waves that are a threat even to large ships and ocean liners. In oceanography, they are more precisely defined as waves whose wave height is more than twice the significant wave height , which is itself defined as the mean of the largest third of waves in a wave record....
  • frequency
    Frequency

    Frequency is the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit time. It is also referred to as temporal frequency.The period is the duration of one cycle in a repeating event, so the period is the reciprocal of the frequency....
  • frequency modulation
    Frequency modulation

    In telecommunications, frequency modulation conveys information over a carrier wave by varying its frequency . In analog signal applications, the instantaneous frequency of the carrier is directly proportional to the instantaneous value of the input signal....
  • fundamental frequency
    Fundamental frequency

    The fundamental tone, often referred to simply as the fundamental and abbreviated f0 or F0, is the lowest frequency in a harmonic series ....


G

  • Gaussian beam
    Gaussian beam

    In optics, a Gaussian beam is a beam of electromagnetic radiation whose transverse electric field and intensity distributions are described by Gaussian functions....
  • geometric optics, geometrical optics
    Geometrical optics

    As a mathematical study, geometrical optics emerges as a short-wavelength limit for solutions to hyperbolic partial differential equations. For a less mathematical introduction, please see optics....
  • gravitational radiation
  • gravity wave
    Gravity wave

    In fluid dynamics, gravity waves are waves generated in a fluid medium or at the Interface between two media which has the restoring force of gravity or buoyancy....
  • groundwave
  • group delay
    Group delay

    Group delay is a measure of the transit time of a signal through a device under test , versus frequency. Group delay is a useful measure of phase distortion, and is calculated by differentiating the insertion phase response of the DUT versus frequency....
  • group velocity
    Group velocity

    The group velocity of a wave is the velocity with which the overall shape of the wave's amplitudes propagate through space. For example, imagine what happens if a stone is thrown into the middle of a very still pond....

H

  • harmonic
    Harmonic

    In acoustics and telecommunication, a harmonic of a wave is a component frequency of the Signalling that is an integer multiple of the fundamental frequency....
  • holography
    Holography

    A hologram is a picture that changes when looked at from different angles.Holography is a technique that allows the light scattered from an object to be recorded and later reconstructed so that it appears as if the object is in the same position relative to the recording medium as it was when recorded....
  • human echolocation
    Human echolocation

    Human echolocation is the ability of humans to sense objects in their environment by hearing echoes from those objects. This ability is used by some blindness people to navigate within their environment....
  • hundred-year wave
    Hundred-year wave

    A hundred-year wave is a statistics projected Ocean surface wave, the height of which, on average, is met or exceeded once in a hundred years for a given location....
  • Huygens' principle
  • hydraulic jump
    Hydraulic jump

    A hydraulic jump is a phenomenon in the science of hydraulics which is frequently observed in open channel flow such as rivers and spillways. When liquid at high velocity discharges into a zone of lower velocity, a rather abrupt rise occurs in the liquid surface....


I

  • in phase
  • inertial wave
    Inertial wave

    Inertial waves, also known as inertial oscillations, are a type of mechanical wave possible in rotating fluids. Unlike wind waves commonly seen at the beach or in the bathtub, inertial waves travel through the bulk of the fluid, not at the surface....
  • interferometry
    Interferometry

    Interferometry is the technique of diagnosing the properties of two or more waves by studying the pattern of interference created by their Superposition principle....
  • internal wave
    Internal wave

    Internal waves are gravity waves that oscillation within, rather than on the surface of, a fluid medium. They arise from perturbations to Hydrostatic_balance, where balance is maintained between the force of gravity and the buoyancy restoring force....
  • inverse scattering transform
    Inverse scattering transform

    In mathematics, the inverse scattering transform is a method for solving some non-linear partial differential equations. It is one of the most important developments in mathematical physics in the past 40 years....


K

  • Kelvin wave
    Kelvin wave

    A Kelvin Wave is a wave in the ocean or atmosphere that balances the Earth's Coriolis force against a topographic boundary such as a coastline. A feature of a Kelvin wave is that it is Dispersion , i.e., the phase speed of the wave crests is equal to the group speed of the wave energy for all frequencies....
  • knife-edge effect
    Knife-edge effect

    In electromagnetic wave wave propagation, the knife-edge effect or edge diffraction is a redirection by diffraction of a portion of the incident radiation that strikes a well-defined obstacle such as a mountain range or the edge of a building....


L

  • Lamb waves
    Lamb waves

    Lamb waves propagate in solid plates. They are elastic waves whose particle motion lies in the plane defined by the plate normal and the direction of wave propagation....
  • Landau damping
    Landau damping

    In physics, Landau damping, named after its discoverer, the eminent Soviet physicist Lev Davidovich Landau, is the effect of damping of plasma oscillation in Plasma or a similar environment....
  • linear elasticity
    Linear elasticity

    Linear elasticity is the mathematical study of how solid objects deform and become internally stressed due to prescribed loading conditions. Linear elasticity relies upon the Continuum mechanics hypothesis and is applicable at macroscopic length scales....
  • linear polarization
    Linear polarization

    In electrodynamics, linear polarization or plane polarization of electromagnetic radiation is a confinement of the electric field vector or magnetic field vector to a given plane along the direction of propagation....
  • longitudinal mode
    Longitudinal mode

    A longitudinal mode of a resonant cavity is a particular standing wave pattern formed by waves confined in the cavity. The longitudinal modes correspond to the wavelengths of the wave which are reinforced by constructive interference after many reflections from the cavity's reflecting surfaces....
  • longitudinal wave
    Longitudinal wave

    Longitudinal waves are waves that have vibrations along or parallel to their direction of travel; that is, waves in which the motion of the medium is in the same direction as the motion of the wave....
  • longwave
    Longwave

    The longwave radio band is a range of frequencies used for AM broadcasting, which extends from 148.5 to 283.5 kHz. It falls within the low frequency part of the radio spectrum ....
  • Love wave
    Love wave

    In elastodynamics, Love waves are essentially horizontally polarized shear waves guided by an elastic layer, which is "welded" to an elastic half space on one side while bordering a vacuum on the other side....


M

  • Mach wave
    Mach wave

    In fluid dynamics, a Mach wave is a pressure wave traveling with the speed of sound caused by a slight change of pressure added to a compressible flow....
  • Mach-Zehnder interferometer
    Mach-Zehnder interferometer

    The Mach-Zehnder interferometer is a device used to determine the Phase caused by a small sample which is placed in the path of one of two collimated beams from a Coherence light source....
  • mediumwave
    Mediumwave

    Medium Wave is a part of the Medium frequency radio band used mainly for AM broadcasting. Some experiments and trials are planned or under way for a digital modulation such as Digital Radio Mondiale ....
  • megatsunami
    Megatsunami

    Megatsunami is an informal term to indicate a tsunami that has initial wave heights that are much larger than normal tsunami. Unlike usual tsunamis, which originate from tectonic plate and the raising or lowering of the sea floor, known megatsunamis have originated from large scale impact events such as landslides and meteor impacts....
  • microbarom
    Microbarom

    In acoustics, microbaroms, also known as the "voice of the sea",are a class of Earth's atmosphere infrasonic waves generated in marine storms...
  • microwave
    Microwave

    Microwaves are electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths ranging from 1 mm to 1 m, or frequency between 0.3 hertz and 300 GHz....
  • microwave auditory effect
    Microwave auditory effect

    The microwave auditory effect, also known as the microwave hearing effect or the Frey effect, consists of audible clicks induced by pulsed/modulated microwave frequencies....
  • microwave oven
    Microwave oven

    A microwave oven, or a microwave, is a kitchen appliance that cookings or heats food by dielectric heating. This is accomplished by using microwave radiation to heat water and other dipole within the food....
  • microwave plasma
    Microwave plasma

    Microwaves, being high frequency electromagnetic radiation in the GHz range, are capable of exciting electrodeless gas discharges.Microwave-excited Plasma s have two appealing properties:...
  • microwaving
  • Mie scattering
  • millimeter cloud radar
    Millimeter cloud radar

    Millimeter-wave cloud radar is a radar system designed to monitor cloud structure with wavelengths about ten times shorter than those used in conventional storm surveillance radars such as NEXRAD....
  • modulation
    Modulation

    In telecommunications, modulation is the process of varying a Periodic function waveform, i.e. a tone, in order to use that signal to convey a message, in a similar fashion as a musician may modulate the tone from a musical instrument by varying its volume, timing and Pitch ....
  • monochromator
    Monochromator

    A monochromator is an optics device that transmits a mechanically selectable narrow band of wavelengths of light or other radiation chosen from a wider range of wavelengths available at the input....
  • multipath propagation


N


  • nonlinear Schrödinger equation
    Nonlinear Schrödinger equation

    In theoretical physics, the nonlinear Schr?dinger equation is a nonlinear version of Schr?dinger equation. It is a classical field equation with applications to optics and water waves....
  • normal mode
    Normal mode

    A normal mode of an oscillation is a pattern of motion in which all parts of the system move sinusoidally with the same frequency. The frequencies of the normal modes of a system are known as its natural frequencies or resonant frequencies....


O

  • ocean surface wave
    Ocean surface wave

    In fluid dynamics wind waves, or more precisely wind generated waves, are surface waves that occur on the free surface of oceans, seas, lakes, rivers and canals ? or even on small puddles and ponds....
  • oscillon
    Oscillon

    In physics, an oscillon is a soliton-like phenomenon that results from vibrating a plate with a large number of small uniform particles placed freely on top....
  • optical waveguide
  • out of phase
  • overtone
    Overtone

    An overtone is a natural resonance of a system. Systems described by overtones are often sound systems, for example, blown pipes or plucked strings....


P

  • P-wave
    P-wave

    P-waves are type of elastic wave, also called seismic waves, that can travel through gases , elastic solids and liquids, including the Earth....
  • phase (waves)
    Phase (waves)

    The phase of an oscillation or wave is the fraction of a complete cycle corresponding to an offset in the displacement from a specified reference point at time t = 0....
  • phase difference
  • phase inversion
    Phase inversion

    A phase inversion is the introduction of a phase difference of 180? into a waveform. As such, it is more properly called a polarity inversion, as phase can differ relative to frequency but polarity is absolute....
  • phase modulation
    Phase modulation

    Phase modulation is a form of modulation that represents information as variations in the instantaneous phase of a carrier wave.Unlike its more popular counterpart, frequency modulation , PM is not very widely used....
  • phase velocity
    Phase velocity

    The phase velocity of a wave is the rate at which the phase of the wave propagates in space. This is the speed at which the phase of any one frequency component of the wave travels....
  • phonon
    Phonon

    In physics, a phonon is a quantum mode of vibration occurring in a rigid crystal structure, such as the atomic lattice of a solid. The study of phonons is an important part of solid state physics, because phonons play a major role in many of the physical properties of solids, including a material's thermal conductivity and electrical conduc...
  • pitch shifter (audio processor)
  • plane wave
    Plane wave

    In the physics of wave propagation, a plane wave is a constant-frequency wave whose wavefronts are infinite parallel planes of constant amplitude normal to the phase velocity vector....
  • polarization
    Polarization

    Polarization is a property of waves that describes the orientation of their oscillations. For transverse waves such as many electromagnetic waves, it describes the orientation of the oscillations in the plane perpendicular to the wave's direction of travel....
  • pressure wave
  • pulse-density modulation
    Pulse-density modulation

    Pulse-density modulation, or PDM, is a form of modulation used to represent an analog signal in the digital domain. In a PDM signal, specific amplitude values are not encoded into pulses as they would be in Pulse-code modulation....


Q

  • QT interval
    QT interval

    In medicine, specifically cardiology, the QT interval is a measure of the time between the start of the Q wave and the end of the T wave in the heart's Electrical conduction system of the heart....
  • quadrature
    Quadrature

    Quadrature, derived from Latin quadrare, may refer to:In signal processing:*Quadrature amplitude modulation , a modulation method of using both a carrier wave and a 'quadrature' carrier wave that is 90? out of phase with the main carrier...
  • quadrature amplitude modulation
    Quadrature amplitude modulation

    Quadrature amplitude modulation is a modulation scheme which conveys data by changing the amplitude of two carrier waves. These two waves, usually sinusoids, are out of phase with each other by 90degree and are thus called Quadrature phase carriers?hence the name of the scheme....
  • quantum optics
    Quantum optics

    Quantum optics is a field of research in physics, dealing with the application of quantum mechanics to phenomena involving light and its interactions with matter....
  • quantum tunneling


R

  • radar
    Radar

    Radar is a system that uses electromagnetic radiation waves to identify the range, altitude, direction, or speed of both moving and fixed objects such as aircraft, ships, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain....
  • radar astronomy
    Radar astronomy

    Radar astronomy is a technique of observing nearby astronomical objects by reflecting microwaves off target objects and analyzing the echoes. This research has been conducted for four decades....
  • radar cross section
    Radar cross section

    Radar cross section is a measure of how detectable an object is with a radar. When radar waves are beamed at a target, only a certain amount is reflected back....
  • radar gun
    Radar gun

    A radar gun or speed gun is a small Doppler radar used to detect the speed of objects. A radar gun does not return information regarding the object's position or any information concerning the car e.g....
  • radio propagation
    Radio propagation

    Radio propagation is a term used to explain how radio waves behave when they are transmitted, or are wave propagation from one point on the Earth to another....
  • radio waves
    Radio waves

    Radio waves are Electromagnetic radiation occurring on the radio frequency portion of the electromagnetic spectrum....
  • Rayleigh scattering
    Rayleigh scattering

    Rayleigh scattering is the elastic scattering of light or other electromagnetism radiation by particles much smaller than the wavelength of the light....
  • Rayleigh wave
    Rayleigh wave

    Rayleigh waves are a type of elastic surface wave that travel on solids. They are produced on the Earth by earthquakes, in which case they are also known as "ground roll", or by other sources of seismic energy such as an explosion or even a sledgehammer impact....
  • Rayleigh-Jeans law
    Rayleigh-Jeans law

    In physics, the Rayleigh?Jeans Law, first proposed in the early 20th century, attempts to describe the spectral radiance of electromagnetic radiation at all wavelengths from a black body at a given temperature through classical arguments....
  • redshift
    Redshift

    In physics and astronomy, redshift occurs when electromagnetic radiation?usually visible light?emitted or reflected by an object is shifted towards the red end of the electromagnetic spectrum due to the Doppler effect....
  • reflection coefficient
    Reflection coefficient

    The reflection coefficient is used in physics and electrical engineering when wave propagation in a medium containing discontinuity is considered....
  • reflection seismology
    Reflection seismology

    Reflection seismology is a method of exploration geophysics that uses the principles of seismology to estimate the properties of the Earth's subsurface from reflection seismic waves....
  • refraction
    Refraction

    Refraction is the change in direction of a wave due to a change in its speed. This is most commonly observed when a wave passes from one optical medium to another....
  • relativistic Doppler effect
    Relativistic Doppler effect

    The relativistic Doppler effect is the change in frequency of light, caused by the relative motion of the source and the observer , when taking into account effects of the special relativity....
  • resonance
    Resonance

    In physics, resonance is the tendency of a system to oscillate at maximum amplitude at certain Frequency, known as the system's resonance frequencies ....
  • ring modulation
    Ring modulation

    Ring modulation is a signal-processing effect in electronics, related to amplitude modulation or frequency mixer, performed by multiplying two signals, where one is typically a sine-wave or another simple waveform....
  • ring wave guide
  • ripple
    Ripple

    Ripple can refer to:* Ripple * Ripple effect, the socio-educational phenomenon* Ripple , residual unwanted variations following ac to dc conversion...
  • ripple tank
    Ripple tank

    In physics and engineering, a ripple tank is a shallow glass tank of water used in schools and colleges to demonstrate the basic properties of waves....
  • rogue wave (oceanography)
  • Rossby wave
    Rossby wave

    Rossby waves are giant meanders in high-altitude winds that are a major influence on weather. Their emergence is due to shear in rotating fluids, so that the Coriolis force changes along the sheared coordinate....

S

  • S-wave
    S-wave

    A type of seismic wave, the S-wave, secondary wave, or shear wave is one of the two main types of elastic body wave s, so named because they move through the body of an object, unlike surface waves....
  • sample (signal)
  • sawtooth wave
    Sawtooth wave

    The sawtooth wave is a kind of non-sinusoidal waveform. It is named a sawtooth based on its resemblance to the teeth on the blade of a saw.The convention is that a sawtooth wave ramps upward and then sharply drops....
  • sea state
    Sea state

    A sea state includes the significant wave height, period, and character of Ocean surface wave on the surface of a large body of water. The large number of variables involved in creating the sea state cannot be quickly and easily summarised, so simpler scales are used to give an approximate but concise description of conditions for reporting...
  • seiche
    Seiche

    A seiche is a standing wave in an enclosed or partially enclosed body of water. Seiches and seiche-related phenomena have been observed on lakes, Reservoir s, swimming pools, bays and seas....
  • seismic wave
    Seismic wave

    Seismic waves are waves that travel through the Earth or other elastic body, for example as the result of an earthquake, explosion, or some other process that imparts forces to the body....
  • seismograph
  • seismology
    Seismology

    Seismology is the scientific study of earthquakes and the propagation of Linear elasticity#Elastic waves through the Earth. The field also includes studies of earthquake effects, such as tsunamis as well as diverse seismic sources such as volcanic, tectonic, oceanic, atmospheric, and artificial processes ....
  • Sellmeier equation
    Sellmeier equation

    The Sellmeier equation is an empirical relationship between refractive index and wavelength for a particular transparency optical medium. The equation is used to determine the dispersion of light in the medium....
  • shallow water equations
    Shallow water equations

    The shallow water equations are a set of hyperbolic partial differential equations that describe the flow below a pressure surface in a fluid ....
  • shock wave
    Shock wave

    A shock wave is a type of propagating disturbance. Like an ordinary wave, it carries energy and can propagate through a medium or in some cases in the absence of a material medium, through a field such as the electromagnetic field....
  • shortwave
    Shortwave

    Shortwave radio operates in the frequency range of 3,000 kHz to 30,000 kHz . In radio, short wavelength corresponds to high frequency given the inverse relationship between frequency and wavelength, thus, ?shortwave radio? is denominated so, because its wavelengths are shorter than the long wave-lengths used in early radio communications; m...
  • significant wave height
    Significant wave height

    In physical oceanography, significant wave height , or 'Hs', is the average wave height of the one-third largest ocean surface wave....
  • sine wave
    Sine wave

    The sine wave or sinusoid is a function that occurs often in mathematics, physics, signal processing, hearing , electrical engineering, and many other fields....
  • single-sideband modulation
    Single-sideband modulation

    Single-sideband modulation is a refinement of amplitude modulation that more efficiently uses electric power and bandwidth . It is closely related to vestigial sideband modulation ....
  • skywave
    Skywave

    Skywave is the Radio propagation of radio waves bent back to the Earth's surface by the ionosphere. As a result of skywave propagation, a Broadcasting signal from a distant AM broadcasting station at night, or from a shortwave radio station can sometimes be heard as clearly as local stations....
  • solitary wave
    Solitary wave

    In mathematics and physics, a solitary wave can refer to* The wave of translation, a solitary water wave observed by John Scott Russell in a barge canal in 1834....
  • soliton
    Soliton

    In mathematics and physics, a soliton is a self-reinforcing solitary wave that maintains its shape while it travels at constant speed. Solitons are caused by a cancellation of nonlinearity and dispersive effects in the medium....
  • sonar
    Sonar

    Sonar is a technique that uses sound propagation to navigation, communicate with or detect other vessels. There are two kinds of sonar: active and passive....
  • sound wave
  • speed of sound
    Speed of sound

    Sound is a vibration that travels through an elasticity medium as a wave. The speed of sound describes how much distance such a wave travels in a certain amount of time....
  • square wave
    Square wave

    A square wave is a kind of non-sinusoidal waveform, most typically encountered in electronics and signal processing. An ideal square wave alternates regularly and instantaneously between two levels....
  • standing wave
    Standing wave

    A standing wave, also known as a stationary wave, is a wave that remains in a constant position. This phenomenon can occur because the medium is moving in the opposite direction to the wave, or it can arise in a stationary medium as a result of interference between two waves traveling in opposite directions....
  • standing wave ratio
    Standing wave ratio

    In telecommunications, standing wave ratio is the ratio of the amplitude of a partial standing wave at an antinode to the amplitude at an adjacent node , in an electrical transmission line....
  • Stokes drift
    Stokes drift

    For a pure wave motion in fluid dynamics, the Stokes drift velocity is the average velocity when following a specific fluid parcel as it travels with the fluid flow....
  • subharmonic
    Subharmonic

    Subharmonic frequencies are frequency below the fundamental frequency of an oscillator in a ratio of . For example, if the fundamental frequency of an oscillator is 440 Hz, sub-harmonics include 220 Hz and 110 Hz ....
  • superharmonic
  • super low frequency
    Super low frequency

    Super Low Frequency is the frequency range between 30 hertz and 300 hertz. This frequency range includes the frequencies of Alternating current Electric power transmission ....
  • surface wave
    Surface wave

    In physics, a surface wave is a mechanical wave that propagates along the interface between differing media, usually two fluids with different densities....
  • surface acoustic wave
    Surface acoustic wave

    A surface acoustic wave is an acoustic wave traveling along the surface of a material exhibiting elastic , with an amplitude that typically decays exponentially with depth into the substrate....
  • surface-wave-sustained mode
    Surface-wave-sustained mode

    Plasmas that are excited by propagation of electromagnetic surface waves are called surface-wave-sustained. Surface wave plasma sources can be divided into two groups depending upon whether the plasma generates part of its own waveguide by ionisation or not....
  • surfing
    Surfing

    Surfing refers to a person or boat riding down a wave and thereby gathering speed from the downward movement. Most commonly, the term is used for a surface water sports in which the person surfing is carried along the face of a breaking ocean surface wave standing on a surfboard....
  • swell (ocean)
    Swell (ocean)

    A swell, in the context of an ocean, sea or lake, is a formation of long-wavelength wind wave. Swells are far more stable in their directions and frequency than normal wind waves, having often travelled long distances since their formation by tropical storms or other wind systems....
  • synthetic aperture radar
    Synthetic aperture radar

    Synthetic-aperture radar is a form of radar in which the large, highly-directional rotating antenna used by conventional radar is replaced with many low-directivity small stationary antennas scattered over some area near or around the target area....


T

  • tidal bore
    Tidal bore

    A tidal bore is a tide phenomenon in which the leading edge of the incoming tide forms a wave of water that travel up a river or narrow bay against the direction of the current....
  • tidal power
    Tidal power

    Tidal power, sometimes called tidal energy, is a form of hydropower that converts the energy of tides into electricity or other useful forms of power....
  • tidal resonance
    Tidal resonance

    In oceanography, a tidal resonance occurs when the tide excites one of the resonant modes of the ocean. The effect is most striking when a continental shelf is about a quarter wavelength wide....
  • tide
    Tide

    Tides are the rising of Earth's ocean surface caused by the tidal forces of the Moon and the Sun acting on the oceans. Tides cause changes in the depth of the marine and estuary water bodies and produce oscillating currents known as tidal streams, making prediction of tides important for coastal navigation ....
  • tired light theory
  • transverse mode
    Transverse mode

    A transverse mode of a beam of electromagnetic radiation is a particular electromagnetic field pattern of radiation measured in a plane perpendicular to the propagation direction of the beam....
  • transverse wave
    Transverse wave

    A transverse wave is a moving wave that consists of oscillations occurring perpendicular to the direction of energy transfer. If a transverse wave is moving in the positive x-direction, its oscillations are in up and down directions that lie in the y-z plane....
  • traveling-wave tube
  • triangle wave
    Triangle wave

    A triangle wave is a non-sinusoidal waveform named for its triangular shape.Like a square wave, the triangle wave contains only odd harmonics....
  • trigonometric function
    Trigonometric function

    In mathematics, the trigonometric functions are function s of an angle. They are important in the trigonometry of Triangle and modeling Periodic function, among many other applications....
  • tsunami
    Tsunami

    A is a series of ocean surface wave that is created when a large volume of a body of water, such as an ocean, is rapidly displaced. The Japanese term is literally translated into " harbor wave."...


U

  • ultra low frequency
    Ultra low frequency

    The Ultra Low Frequency is the frequency range between 300 hertz and 3 kilohertz. Many types of waves in the ULF frequency band can be observed in the magnetosphere and on the ground....
  • ultrasound
    Ultrasound

    Ultrasound is cyclic sound pressure with a frequency greater than the upper limit of human hearing . Although this limit varies from person to person, it is approximately 20 Hertz in healthy, young adults and thus, 20 kHz serves as a useful lower limit in describing ultrasound....
  • ultraviolet catastrophe
    Ultraviolet catastrophe

    The ultraviolet catastrophe, also called the Rayleigh-Jeans catastrophe, was a prediction of early 20th century classical physics that an ideal black body at thermodynamic equilibrium will emit radiation with infinite power....
  • undular bore
    Undular bore

    In meteorology, an undular bore is a wave disturbance in the Earth's atmosphere and can be seen through unique cloud formations.Overview...
  • underwater wave


V

  • vestigial-sideband modulation
  • vibrating string
    Vibrating string

    A vibration in a strings is a wave. Usually a vibrating string produces a sound whose frequency in most cases is constant. Therefore, since frequency characterizes the Pitch_, the sound produced is a constant note....
  • voltage standing wave ratio


W

  • wake
    Wake

    A wake is the region of turbulence immediately to the rear of a solid body caused by the flow of air or water around the body.In fluid dynamics, a wake is the region of separated flow downstream of a solid body moving relative to the fluid, caused by the flow of liquid around the body....
  • wave base
    Wave base

    The wave base is the maximum depth at which a water wave's passage causes significant water motion. For water depths larger than the wave base, bottom sediments are no longer stirred by the wave motion above....
  • wave drag
    Wave drag

    Wave drag is an aerodynamics term that refers to a sudden and very powerful form of drag that appears on aircraft and blade tips moving at high-subsonic and supersonic speeds....
  • wave equation
    Wave equation

    The wave equation is an important second-order linear partial differential equation that describes the propagation of a variety of waves, such as sound waves, light waves and water waves....
  • wavefront
    Wavefront

    In optics and physics, a wavefront is the Locus of Point s having the same phase . Since infrared, optical, x-ray and gamma-ray frequencies are so high, the temporal component of electromagnetic waves is usually ignored at these wavelengths, and it is only the phase of the spatial oscillation that is described....
  • wave impedance
    Wave impedance

    The wave impedance of an electromagnetic wave, is the ratio of the transverse components of the electric field and magnetic fields . For a transverse-electric-magnetic plane wave travelling through a homogeneous medium , the wave impedance is everywhere equal to the intrinsic impedance of the medium....
  • wavelength
    Wavelength

    In physics, wavelength is the distance between repeating units of a propagating wave of a given frequency. It is commonly designated by the Greek language letter lambda ....
  • wave period
  • wave power
    Wave power

    Wave power is the transport of energy by ocean surface waves, and the capture of that energy to do useful mechanical work ? for example for electricity generation, desalination, or the pumping of water ....
  • wave vector
    Wave vector

    A wave vector is a vector representation of a wave. The wave vector has magnitude indicating wavenumber , and the direction of the vector indicates the direction of wave propagation....
  • waveform
    Waveform

    Waveform means the shape and form of a signal such as a wave moving in a solid, liquid or gaseous medium.In many cases the medium in which the wave is being propagated does not permit a direct visual image of the form....
  • waveform monitor
    Waveform monitor

    A waveform monitor is a special type of oscilloscope used in television applications. It is typically used to measure and display the level, or voltage, of a video signal with respect to time....
  • waveguide
    Waveguide

    A waveguide is a structure which guides waves, such as electromagnetic waves or sound waves. There are different types of waveguide for each type of wave....
  • wavenumber
    Wavenumber

    Wavenumber in most physics sciences is a wave property inverse related to wavelength, having SI units of reciprocal metre . Wavenumber is the space analog of frequency, that is, it is the measurement of the number of repeating units of a propagating wave per unit of space....
  • wavenumber-frequency diagram
    Wavenumber-frequency diagram

    A wavenumber-frequency diagram is a plot of a field that has been subjected to a Fourier transform both in space and time.In the atmospheric sciences, these plots are a common way to visualize atmospheric waves....
  • waverider
    Waverider

    A waverider is a hypersonic aircraft design that improves its supersonic lift-to-drag ratio by producing a lifting surface built out of the shock waves being generated by its own flight, a technique known as compression lift....
  • waves and shallow water
    Waves and shallow water

    When ocean surface wave travel into areas of shallow water, they begin to be affected by the ocean bottom. The free orbital motion of the water is disrupted, and water particles in orbital motion no longer return to their original position....
  • wave velocity
    Wave velocity

    Wave velocity is a wave property, which may refer to:*phase velocity, the velocity at which a wave phase propagates at a certain frequency*group velocity, the propagation velocity for the envelope of wave groups and often of wave energy, different from the phase velocity for dispersive waves...
  • wave-particle duality
  • wavefunction
    Wavefunction

    A wave function or wavefunction is a mathematical tool used in quantum mechanics to describe any physical system. It is a function from a mathematical space that maps the possible states of the system into the complex numbers....
  • wavefunction collapse
    Wavefunction collapse

    In quantum mechanics, wave function collapse is the process by which a wave function, initially in a Quantum superposition of different eigenstates, appears to reduce to a single one of the states after interaction with the external world....
  • wavelength
    Wavelength

    In physics, wavelength is the distance between repeating units of a propagating wave of a given frequency. It is commonly designated by the Greek language letter lambda ....
  • wavelength-division multiplexing
    Wavelength-division multiplexing

    In fiber-optic communications, wavelength-division multiplexing is a technology which Multiplexing multiple Optical Carrier signals on a single optical fiber by using different wavelengths of laser light to carry different signals....
  • Wien's law
    Wien's law

    Wien's law or Wien law may refer to:* Wien approximation, an equation used to describe the short-wavelength spectrum of thermal radiation....


X

  • X-band radar


Z

  • zero-dispersion slope
  • zero-dispersion wavelength
    Zero-dispersion wavelength

    In a single-mode optical fiber, the zero-dispersion wavelength is the wavelength or wavelengths at which material dispersion and waveguide dispersion cancel one another....
  • zone plate
    Zone plate

    A zone plate is a device used to Focus light. Unlike lens however, zone plates use diffraction instead of refraction. Created by Augustin-Jean Fresnel [fre?'nel], they are sometimes called Fresnel zone plates in his honor....