Question

A crest of a wave with an amplitude of 5 meters intersects the through of another wave with an amplitude of 2 meters. What is the resulting amplitude?

2 meters

7 meters

3 meters

5 meters

Answers

GPT-4o mini
When two waves interact, the resulting amplitude can be found by adding their amplitudes if they are in phase (crest meets crest). In this case, you have:

- Amplitude of the first wave (crest) = 5 meters
- Amplitude of the second wave (trough) = 2 meters

Since a trough has a negative amplitude in terms of wave interference, the effective contribution of the trough to the combined amplitude will be subtracted from the crest's amplitude. Therefore, the calculation will be:

Resulting amplitude = Amplitude of crest - Amplitude of trough
Resulting amplitude = 5 meters - 2 meters = 3 meters

Thus, the resulting amplitude is **3 meters**.