Two sinusoidal waves, identical except for phase, travel in the same direction along a string producing a net wave y'(x, t) = (1.5 mm) sin(29x - 4.0t + 0.960 rad), with x in meters and t in seconds.
(a) What is the wavelength of the two waves?
I found the wavelength to be 0.22 m.
(b) What is the phase difference between them?
I found the phase difference to be 2*0.960 rad which is 1.92 rad.
(c) What is their amplitude ym?
I can't figure out the amplitude though, I tried .5*1.5 mm = 0.75 mm but it is not. Any suggestions???
The amplitude is 1.5mm. Why did you divide it by two.
To find the amplitude (ym) of a sinusoidal wave, you need to look at the coefficient in front of the sine or cosine function. In this case, the coefficient of the sine function is 1.5 mm.
The amplitude represents the maximum displacement from the equilibrium position, which is the maximum value of the wave. It is not necessary to divide it by two. So, the amplitude (ym) of the given wave is indeed 1.5 mm, as you correctly calculated earlier.