First Assignment

Mathematics 309 - the elementary geometry of wave motion

Part I - Simple Geometric Motion of Waves

In order to understand the geometry of waves, we have to understand the geometry of simple waves, since light posseses the properties of waves.
Simple waves have 3 main parts: Velocity, Frequency and Wavelength. We will use greek letters to represent some of the three parts.

c = Velocity

w = Frequency

l = Wavelength

The period T, is equal to one divided by the frequency.

T = 1 / w

There are two kinds of units for frequencys, cycles per seconds and radians per second.
Any two of these can be used to calculate the third, for example:

T = 1 / (w / 2p) = 2p /w

OR:

c = l / T = lw / 2p

Here is the graphical representation of the wavelength, with the function f(x)

The function y = cos (x -ct)