Question

Freesia is trying to explain wave interference to her friend. She uses an analogy involving students pushing on a box. Which of these statements could Freesia use to explain destructive interference of waves?

a) When two students push equally on opposite sides of the box, their pushes cancel each other out.
b) When two students push equally in the same direction on a box, the effect of the pushes is greater than either separate push.
c) When one student pushes up on a box and another student pushes on the side, the box moves more quickly.
d) When one student pushes down on a box and another student pushes on the side, the box is more difficult to move.

Answer 1

Freesia can explain destructive wave interference by likening it to two students who push on opposite sides of a box with equal force, causing their efforts to cancel each other out, just as out-of-phase waves cancel each other's amplitude to zero.

Step-by-step explanation:

Freesia is trying to explain wave interference using an analogy of students pushing on a box. To explain destructive interference of waves, she could say that it is like when two students push equally on opposite sides of the box. In this analogy, similar to how the forces exerted by the students cancel each other out and the box doesn't move, destructive interference occurs when two waves of equal frequency and amplitude meet while being exactly out of phase, resulting in them canceling each other out, producing zero amplitude.