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Types of Wave Fronts Explained

A wave front is an imaginary surface representing points of a wave vibrating in the same phase, with three types: plane, spherical, and cylindrical. Spherical wavefronts emerge from point sources in isotropic media, cylindrical wavefronts arise from linear sources, and plane wavefronts appear distant from any source. Huygens' Principle states that every point on a wave front acts as a source of spherical wavelets that combine to form the wave front.

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118 views3 pages

Types of Wave Fronts Explained

A wave front is an imaginary surface representing points of a wave vibrating in the same phase, with three types: plane, spherical, and cylindrical. Spherical wavefronts emerge from point sources in isotropic media, cylindrical wavefronts arise from linear sources, and plane wavefronts appear distant from any source. Huygens' Principle states that every point on a wave front acts as a source of spherical wavelets that combine to form the wave front.

Uploaded by

fahad.akhter
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Wave front:

A wave front is an imaginary surface representing corresponding points of a wave that vibrate in
same phase.

Types of wave front:

There are three types of wave fronts

Plane wavefront

Spherical wavefront

Cylindrical wavefront.

Spherical Wavefront
When the point source is an isotropic medium, sending out
waves in three dimensions, the wavefronts are spheres centred
on the source. Such a wavefront is called a spherical wavefront.

Examples of Spherical Wavefronts


 Electromagnetic waves in a vacuum form a spherical wavefront.
 The concentric circles’ formation when the stone is dropped in water.

Cylindrical Wavefront
When the light source is linear, we obtain a cylindrical wavefront. In a cylindrical
wavefront, all the points equidistant from the linear source lie on the surface of a
cylinder.

Examples of Cylindrical Wavefronts


when light from a lens falls on another lens and converges at a given point. As they
bend and converge, it takes the form of the cylinder at that particular point.
Plane Wavefront
The wavefront will appear as a plane when viewed from a considerable distance from a
source of any kind. Such a wavefront is called a plane wavefront. The plane wavefront
is obtained when the small part of the spherical or cylindrical wavefront originates from
a distant source, like infinity.

Exampes of Plane Wavefront:


A common example of the plane wavefront is the rays coming out of the sun.

Wavelet:

Wavelets are wave-like oscillations with amplitude that begins at


zero. It increases and decreases back to zero. Wavelets are the
secondary waves form from the primary wave fronts.

Huygens Principle
“Every point on a wave front is in itself the source of spherical wavelets which spread
out in the forward direction at the speed of light. The sum of these spherical wavelets
forms the wave front”.

Explanation:

 At some time ‘t’, consider every point on a wave front as a source of a new spherical
wave. These wavelets move in forward direction from the source as the same speed
as the original speed of wave.
 At a later time t + Δt, each wave has a radius (distance) cΔt, where c is the speed of
wave (Light). The new position of the wave front after time t + Δt can be found by
drawing a plane tangential to all secondary wavelets.

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