Two identical sound waves are sent down a long hall. Does the resultant wave necessarily have amplitude twice that of the constituent waves? Explain.Under what conditions would we hear no sound?

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emerhelienapj · Accepted Answer

When the two sound waves interact, the resultant amplitude should be less than or equal to the sum of the amplitudes of two waves. Since they are sinusoidal waves, there is vector addition of the waves, rather than scalar.No sound is heard when there is complete destructive interference of the waves and at that point, no wave exists. For that to happen, the amplitude and frequency of the wave forms should be same, but the phase difference should be   π .Result:Waves don&#039;t add like scalars so the total amplitude depends on the phase difference and can be smaller than the sum of the amplitudes. There is no sound when the phase difference is   π .

Two identical sound waves are sent down a long hall. Does the resultant wave necessarily have amplitude twice that of the constituent waves? Explain. Under what conditions would we hear no sound?

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