Characteristics of stationary waves

Characteristics of stationary waves

(1) Stationary waves are characterised by the confinement of a wave disturbance between two rigid boundaries. This means, the wave does not move forward or backward in a medium (does not advance), it remains steady at its place. Therefore, they are called “stationary waves or standing waves”.

(2) Certain points in the region in which the wave exists have maximum amplitude, called as anti-nodes and at certain points the amplitude is minimum or zero, called as nodes.

(3) The distance between two consecutive nodes (or) anti-nodes is λ/2 .

(4) The distance between a node and its neighbouring anti-node is λ/4.

(5) The transfer of energy along the standing wave is zero.