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Refraction of wave

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Explain how a change in speed as a wave is transmitted from one medium to another can cause a change in direction of the wave.

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Solution Summary

This solution describes how a wave's speed can affect a wave's direction.

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Let us consider a wave originating from a point source (refer fig. in attachment). The wave fronts (locus of all the points oscillating in the same phase) will be concentric circles because the disturbance travels in all the directions with the same speed.

For example the disturbance originating at P travels the distance PA in time t = PA/v where v is the speed of the wave in the given medium. Similarly the disturbances traveling in other directions ...

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