24.3: Conclusion, and Further Resources
selected template will load here
This action is not available.
This chapter on one-dimensional waves has barely scratched the surface of the extremely rich world of wave phenomena. I have only given you a passing glance at interference, and I have not said anything at all about diffraction, the Doppler effect, polarization, refraction.... Many of these things you will learn about in later courses, most likely when you encounter electromagnetic waves (which are non-mechanical, but described by the same mathematical equation).
Waves are such an intrinsically kinetic phenomenon that they are best appreciated by watching them in action, or, as a second-best alternative, through animations. A wonderful repository of such movies and animations is PHYSCLIPS at the University of New South Wales:
http://www.animations.physics.unsw.edu.au/waves-sound/oscillations/index.html
They also have a set of pages on the “physics of music” that I have already mentioned a couple of times. If you are interested in this topic, you should go spend some time there!
http://newt.phys.unsw.edu.au/music
Finally, closer to home, the fellows at PhET (University of Colorado), have this great interactive app to explore waves on a string: