Question

Does Huygens Principle Apply to Sound Waves?

Answer 1

Hint: The law of refraction can be described by the application of Huygens’s principle to a wavefront passing from one medium to another. Each point on a wavefront may be a basis of wavelets that enter the onward direction at a similar speed as the wave itself. A line that is tangent to all of the wavelets will be the resultant new wavefront. Huygens's principle works for all kinds of waves, such as water waves, sound waves, and light waves.

Complete step by step solution:
A tangent surface to the wavelets usually constitutes the new wavefront and is known as the envelope of the wavelets. According to Huygens’s principle, we can say that every point on the wavefront is a source of several wavelets that spread out in the forward direction with the same speed as that of the wave. Therefore, we can say that Huygens’s principle is applicable to sound waves. Other waves, such as water waves and light waves also obey this principle. It can be said that if a medium is homogeneous or isentropic and has the same properties throughout then it will allow the light to travel at the same speed regardless of the direction of propagation. This suggests that the wrapping of the three-dimensional point source will be spherical or else as in the case with many crystals we will see that the wrapping will be ellipsoidal. This principle is applied in the analysis of problems in wave propagation both the field far limit and in near diffraction and reflection which states that the sum of these spherical wavelets generally forms the wavefront. Next, we can also observe that it could not explain how light carries energy as it travels.

Note: The principle of Huygens Principle also called the Huygens–Fresnel principle highlights the following wave propagation behavior. We can also say that secondary sources form their wavelets that are like the primary source. We can notice that at any given point in time the common tangent on the wavelets in the forward direction normally gives the new wavefront. The wavefront which we have learned here is the sum of the spherical waves.