If a wave travels toward a barrier where the end is not fixed and reflects describe in either words or a drawing what the reflected wave will look like.
You can see in an animation what happens at:
http://www.kettering.edu/~drussell/Demos/reflect/reflect.html
There is an even better animation at
http://cnx.org/content/m13513/latest/
Set the "damping" adjustment at zero. You can see what the behavior of the
"fixed end", "free end" and "no end" cases look like
When a wave travels toward a barrier with the end not being fixed and reflects, the reflected wave will have some distinct characteristics. Here's a description of what the reflected wave will look like:
1. Fixed End: If the end of the barrier is fixed, the reflected wave will be inverted (upside down) with respect to the original wave. This means that the crests of the original wave will become troughs in the reflected wave, and vice versa. This can be seen in the animation provided at http://www.kettering.edu/~drussell/Demos/reflect/reflect.html.
2. Free End: If the end of the barrier is free, the reflected wave will be upright (not inverted) compared to the original wave. The crests of the original wave will remain as crests in the reflected wave, and the troughs will also remain as troughs. This behavior can also be observed in the animation from the link provided above.
3. No End: In the case where there is no end to the barrier, the reflected wave will combine with the original wave to create a standing wave pattern. This pattern is characterized by nodes (points of no displacement) and antinodes (points of maximum displacement). The animation at http://cnx.org/content/m13513/latest/ demonstrates this behavior when the "damping" adjustment is set to zero.
To fully visualize and grasp these concepts, I recommend checking out the provided animations as they provide valuable visual representations of the reflected wave patterns.