As exactly the title says:
Why a wave, traveling in a lighter medium, inverts upon reflection from an interface of a denser medium ?
What are the things that go on at the interface ?
Asked
Active
Viewed 49 times
1
Iamat8
- 417
- 1
- 4
- 10
Abhirikshma
- 291
-
2Possible duplicates: http://physics.stackexchange.com/q/32122/2451 and links therein. – Qmechanic Feb 03 '16 at 07:41
-
Nice animations and non mathematical descriptions here http://www.acs.psu.edu/drussell/Demos/reflect/reflect.html. It is a combination of "density" and "stiffness" which determines what happens at a boundary. – Farcher Feb 03 '16 at 07:57
-
Possible duplicate of: Phase shift of 180 degrees on reflection from optically denser medium – John Rennie Feb 03 '16 at 08:08
-
you need to take a look at the boundary conditions at the interface while applying the wave equation... – Bruce Lee Feb 03 '16 at 08:30