Is there interference in longitudinal waves?
Is there interference in longitudinal waves? Diffraction and interference effects occur for both longitudinal and transverse waves, and so cannot be used to distinguish between these types. Sound waves in air and compressional waves in elastic media are longitudinal acoustic (LA) waves, where the displacement is parallel to the direction of propagation. What happens to the waves in constructive interference? Constructive interference occurs when the maxima of two waves add together (the two waves are in phase), so that the amplitude of the resulting wave is equal to the sum of the individual amplitudes. The nodes of the final wave...