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Name: Valery
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Question:
In typical mechanic waves such as sound and water, what is the energy of the wave proportional to? For example,how do you recognise a high energy wave at the beach??

Replies:
Valery

For a water wave: Wave power is proportional to the wave period and to the square of the wave height.

The calculation of power in water waves is presented at this URL:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave_power

You can generally recognize a high energy wave at the beach by its level of violence.

There are a couple of ways to express the energy of sound waves. Please refer to the following URL for a precise discussion of sound wave parameters.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_pressure

When talking about the energy of sound waves You can talk about sound intensity, power, and/or energy.

Sincere regards,

Mike Stewart

Everything else being equal, energy is proportional to amplitude or the size of the wave.

R. W. "Bob" Avakian


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