can someone explain this to me? i have no idea, and in the exam when the question asks me in a diagram, how many standing waves are shown. i have no clue.
plz i am noob.
thnks
I'm assuming you are referring to the standing wave orbits of electrons within atoms.
Essentially what is happening is the circumference of the orbit of the electron must be a whole number of wavelengths of the de brogile wavelength of the electron. An orbit cannot exist when there is not a whole number of wavelengths of de brogile wavelengths. Now with a standing wave, the points of maximum and minimum amplitude are stationary, basically the wave undergoes no net displacement.
Now onto those diagrams you were talking about, to decide how many whole numbers of de brogile wavelengths are within the one standing wave is fairly simple, you just need to treat it like a normal wave but wrapped up, so one wavelength will be from a point of maximum amplitude to the next point of maximum amplitude.
Ill also show you a diagram of how to apply this, if you dont quite follow my words (=
[IMG]http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/3598/lisachem.png[/img]What i have done is counted the number of wavelengths within this standing waves by using the principle that a wavelength is basically the distance that it takes for a wave to repeat itself, so by choosing one point, ( the maximum or minimum are the most convenient ) and then essentially counting how many times that spot occurs, you can count the number of wavelengths.
I took this from lisachem 2009 trial exam question 11, if you were wondering
Also if someone has a better explanation of a standing wave please contribute as i probably haven't provided an adequate description.
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