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11.3: Impedance

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    But why do sound waves reflect from the open end of a tube or when the size of tube changes abruptly? The resistance to the movement of a wave crossing a boundary from one medium into another is called impedance and occurs for waves on a string, sound waves in air and electronic signals in a circuit. When a wave tries to travel from a medium with one impedance to a region where the impedance is different, there will be a partial reflection.

    This page titled 11.3: Impedance is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Kyle Forinash and Wolfgang Christian via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform; a detailed edit history is available upon request.