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Wave Interference

Wave Interference Screenshot Download 1,978 kB
Version: 1.10 (change log)
Make waves with a dripping faucet, audio speaker, or laser! Add a second source or a pair of slits to create an interference pattern.

See Below

Teaching Resources

Main Topics

  • Waves
  • Sound

Sample Learning Goals

  • You can watch water, sound, and light waves move and see how they are related. All can be represented by a sinewave.
  • What does this sinewave represent for these three different phenomena?
  • Use multiple sources with different spacing and see a changing interference pattern.
  • Find points of constructive and destructive interference by eye, and by using the detectors.
  • Put up a barrier to see how the waves move through one or two slits. What sort of pattern do the slits create? How can you change this pattern?
  • In the light panel, predict the locations of the fringes that appear on the screen using d sin(θ) = mλ. Use the tape measure to verify your predictions.

Teaching Ideas

Title Authors Level Type Updated
Light Behaves Like a Wave (sometimes...) This contribution has received a Gold Star because it is a high quality inquiry-based activity that follows the PhET design guidelines (PDF) and teachers have found it useful. Nathan Quarderer UG-Intro
HS		 Lab 12/2/13
Invention Lab_Wave Interference This contribution was designed by PhET. This contribution has received a Gold Star because it is a high quality inquiry-based activity that follows the PhET design guidelines (PDF) and teachers have found it useful. Noah Podolefsky UG-Intro
HS		 Lab 6/8/09
Water Waves in an Electric Sink This contribution has received a Gold Star because it is a high quality inquiry-based activity that follows the PhET design guidelines (PDF) and teachers have found it useful. Dean Baird, Paul G. Hewitt HS Lab 5/7/11
Concept questions for Physics using PhET (Inquiry Based) This contribution was designed by PhET. This contribution has received a Gold Star because it is a high quality inquiry-based activity that follows the PhET design guidelines (PDF) and teachers have found it useful. Trish Loeblein HS
UG-Intro		 CQs 7/7/13
Wave unit (Inquiry Based) This contribution was designed by PhET. This contribution has received a Gold Star because it is a high quality inquiry-based activity that follows the PhET design guidelines (PDF) and teachers have found it useful. Trish Loeblein HS
UG-Intro		 Demo
Lab
CQs		 7/9/13
Wave clicker questions (Inquiry Based) This contribution was designed by PhET. This contribution has received a Gold Star because it is a high quality inquiry-based activity that follows the PhET design guidelines (PDF) and teachers have found it useful. Trish Loeblein UG-Intro
HS		 CQs 7/9/13
Wave demonstrations: water, sound, light (Inquiry Based) This contribution was designed by PhET. This contribution has received a Gold Star because it is a high quality inquiry-based activity that follows the PhET design guidelines (PDF) and teachers have found it useful. Trish Loeblein HS
UG-Intro		 CQs
Demo		 7/7/13
Probability and Randomness Interactive Lecture This contribution was designed by PhET. This contribution has received a Gold Star because it is a high quality inquiry-based activity that follows the PhET design guidelines (PDF) and teachers have found it useful. Sam McKagan, Kathy Perkins, Carl Wieman, and Noah Finkelstein UG-Intro
UG-Adv		 CQs
Demo		 1/9/11
The Fringe of Optics Dean Baird, Paul G. Hewitt UG-Intro
HS		 Lab 5/30/11
Demonstrating the principle of phase plugs used in loudspeakers by Wave Interference Csaba Horvath Other Demo 2/7/10
Oscilatory Motion Mohamed AbdelWahab UG-Intro Other 11/25/09
Applications of Parametric Equations Andrzej Sokolowski MS
UG-Intro		 HW 5/27/09
CD's, DVD's & Optical Commmunication: Binary Coding and Diffraction Errors Debra Krause Dandaneau HS
UG-Intro		 Other
Lab		 4/17/09
Diffracton PhET Lab for AP physics B Chris Bires UG-Intro
HS		 Lab 8/4/10
Lab. Waves Marsha Harden HS Lab 5/8/08
Ripple While You Work David Moutoux HS HW
Lab		 5/5/08
Light and Sound Wave Properties Kristi Goodwin MS Lab 3/17/08
Wavey Simulation Gretchen Swanson HS Lab 9/18/07
Diffraction Stephan Graham HS Lab 4/25/07
Wave Interference in 2D Karen King, Cory Hofschild HS Lab 1/5/09
Virtual Ripple Tank Craig Young HS Lab 10/16/10
Laboratório Virtual: Experimento da Cuba de Ondas Ana Paula Santos Pereira, Patrese Coelho MS Lab 5/16/13

You can submit your own ideas and activities.

Translated Versions:

Language Language (Translated) Simulation Title
Albanian shqipe Interferenca Valëve Run Now
Arabic العربية تداخل الموجة Run Now
Basque Basque Uhin-interferentzia Run Now
Bosnian Bosnian INTERFERENCIJA TALASA Run Now
Brazilian Portuguese português (Brasil) Interferência de Ondas Run Now
Catalan català Interferències entre ones Run Now
Chinese - Simplified 中文 (中国) 水波干涉 Run Now
Chinese - Traditional 中文 (台灣) Wave Interference 水波干涉 Run Now
Croatian hrvatski Interferencija valova Run Now
Czech čeština Vlnová interference Run Now
Danish Dansk Bølgeinterferens Run Now
Dutch Nederlands Golven: interferentie Run Now
Finnish suomi Aaltojen interferenssi Run Now
French français Ondes et intérférences Run Now
Galician Gallegan Interferencia de ondas Run Now
Georgian Georgian ტალღის ინტერფერენცია Run Now
German Deutsch Interferenz Run Now
Greek Ελληνικά Συμβολή κυμάτων Run Now
Hebrew עברית התאבכות גלים Run Now
Hungarian magyar Hullámok interferenciája Run Now
Indonesian Bahasa Indonesia Interferensi Gelombang Run Now
Italian italiano Interferenza di onde Run Now
Japanese 日本語 干渉(Wave Interference) Run Now
Kannada Kannada ಅಲೆಯ ವ್ಯತೀಕರಣ Run Now
Khmer Khmer អាំងទែផេរ៉ង់នៃរលក Run Now
Korean 한국어 파동의 간섭 Run Now
Macedonian македонски Интерференција на бранови Run Now
Marathi Marathi तरंग प्रतिघात Run Now
Mongolian Mongolian Долгионы интерференци Run Now
Norwegian Bokmal Norwegian Bokmål Bølgeinterferens(forstyrrelser) Run Now
Persian Persian تداخل امواج Run Now
Polish polski Interferencja fal Run Now
Portuguese português Interferência de Onda Run Now
Russian русский Интерференция волн Run Now
Serbian Српски Интерференција таласа Run Now
Slovak Slovenčina Interferencia vlnenia Run Now
Spanish español Interferencia De la Onda Run Now
Spanish (Peru) español (Perú) Interferencia de Ondas Run Now
Swedish svenska Våginterferens Run Now
Thai ไทย การแทรกสอดของคลื่น Run Now
Turkish Türkçe Wave Interference Run Now
Turkmen Turkmen Tolkunyň interferensiýasy Run Now
Ukrainian українська Wave Interference Run Now
Vietnamese Tiếng Việt Giao thoa sóng Run Now
Welsh Welsh Ymyriant Tonnau Run Now

Software Requirements

Windows Macintosh Linux
Microsoft Windows
XP/Vista/7
Sun Java 1.5.0_15 or later 		OS 10.5 or later
Sun Java 1.5.0_19 or later 		Sun Java 1.5.0_15 or later

Credits

Design Team Third-party Libraries Thanks To
  • Wendy Adams
  • Noah Podolefsky (lead)
  • Sam Reid (developer)
  • Interviewer: Danielle Harlow
  • Interviewer: Noah Podolefsky
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