How do you determine how much something is out of phase with waves.

[going2breakdown]

How do I figure out how much something is out of phase for the MCAT when looking at a wave diagram? If it's 180 it's destructive and in phase is just constructive interference, but how do I know when it's something else? Should I worry about it? I guess you're just supposed to see it as if something is x degrees out of phase with y, you just take every point of y and rotate it on the cartesian plane by x degrees?

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[Trayshawn]

its only in phase if you can match the crests and troughs of both waves. if not, its out of phase. if crests of one wave match up with troughs of the other wave, its COMPLETELY out of phase (destructive interference)

 

[anon4895]

Each wavelength is 360 degrees or 2pi radians.

If the waves are lined up they're in phase and will constructively interfere.

If one wave is moved over half a wavelength this means it's 180 degrees or pi radians out of phase and will destructively interfere.

If it's somewhere in the middle then the resulting wave will result in some new type of wave.

 

[going2breakdown]

I get all that. What I'm trying to say is how do I figure out how much it is out of phase if it is not 180 or 360? I guess it's probably not something they would ask...is it?

 

[Mornhavon]

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