amplitude

Examples of amplitude in the following topics:

• The de Broglie Wavelength

  • That same year, Max Born published his now-standard interpretation that the square of the amplitude of a matter wave gives the probability of finding a particle at a given place.
  • De Broglie's key realization was that in a one-electron atom, for a wave to have a stable amplitude and not decay over time, an integer number (n) of wavelengths must fit into a single circumference drawn by the Bohr orbit.
  • Propagation of de Broglie waves in 1 dimension (the real part of the complex amplitude is blue and the imaginary part is green; top: plane wave, bottom: wave packet.).
  • As the amplitude increases above zero the curvature decreases, so the amplitude decreases again, and vice versa – the result is an alternating amplitude: a wave.

• Interference and Diffraction

  • Interference and diffraction are terms that describe a wave interacting with something that changes its amplitude, such as another wave.
  • In physics, interference is a phenomenon in which two waves superimpose to form a resultant wave of greater or lower amplitude.

• Particle in a Box

  • The size or amplitude of the wave function at any point determines the probability of finding the particle at that location, as given by the equation:
  • Furthermore, the amplitude of the wavefunction also may not "jump" abruptly from one point to the next.
  • Note that just like a guitar string, the solutions to the particle in a box problem are constrained to those wavefunctions that anchor the amplitude at the walls of the box as zero.

• Properties of Waves and Light

  • There are three measurable properties of wave motion: amplitude, wavelength, and frequency (the number of vibrations per second).
  • This image shows the anatomy of a sine curve: the crest is the peak of each wave, and the trough is the valley; the amplitude is the distance between the crest and the x-axis; and the wavelength is the distance between two crests (or two troughs).