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interference

  (ĭn'tər-fîr'əns) pronunciation
n.
    1. The act or an instance of hindering, obstructing, or impeding.
    2. Something that hinders, obstructs, or impedes.
    1. Sports. Illegal obstruction or hindrance of an opposing player, such as hindrance of a receiver by a defender in football, hindrance of a fielder by a base runner in baseball, or checking a player not in possession of the puck in ice hockey.
    2. Football. The legal blocking of defensive tacklers to protect and make way for the ball carrier.
  1. Physics. The variation of wave amplitude that occurs when waves of the same or different frequency come together.
  2. Electronics.
    1. The inhibition or prevention of clear reception of broadcast signals.
    2. The distorted portion of a received signal.
  3. The negative or distorting effect that new learning can have on previous learning or that previous learning can have on new learning.
interferential in'ter·fer·en'tial (-fə-rĕn'shəl) adj.
 
 

Concept

When two or more waves interact and combine, they interfere with one another. But interference is not necessarily bad: waves may interfere constructively, resulting in a wave larger than the original waves. Or, they may interfere destructively, combining in such a way that they form a wave smaller than the original ones. Even so, destructive interference may have positive effects: without the application of destructive interference to the muffler on an automobile exhaust system, for instance, noise pollution from cars would be far worse than it is. Other examples of interference, both constructive and destructive, can be found wherever there are waves: in water, in sound, in light.

How It Works

Waves

Whenever energy ripples through space, there is a wave. In fact, wave motion can be defined as a type of harmonic motion (repeated movement of a particle about a position of equilibrium, or balance) that carries energy from one place to another without actually moving any matter. A wave on the ocean is an example of a mechanical wave, or one that involves matter; but though the matter moves in place, it is only the energy in the wave that experiences net movement.

Wave motion is related to oscillation, a type of harmonic motion in one or more dimensions. There is one critical difference, however: oscillation involves no net movement, only movement in place, whereas the harmonic motion of waves carries energy from one place to another. Yet, individual waves themselves are oscillating even as the overall wave pattern moves.

A transverse wave forms a regular up-and-down pattern in which the oscillation is perpendicular to the direction the wave is moving. Ocean waves are transverse, though they also have properties of longitudinal waves. In a longitudinal wave, of which a sound wave is the best example, oscillation occurs in the same direction as the wave itself.

Parameters of Wave Motion

Some waves, composed of pulses, do not follow regular patterns. However, the waves of principal concern in the present context are periodic waves, ones in which a uniform series of crests and troughs follow each other in regular succession. Periodic motion is movement repeated at regular intervals called periods. In the case of wave motion, a period (represented by the symbol T) is the amount of time required to complete one full cycle of the wave, from trough to crest and back to trough.

Period can be mathematically related to several other aspects of wave motion, including wave speed, frequency, and wavelength. Frequency (abbreviated f) is the number of waves passing through a given point during the interval of one second. It is measured in Hertz (Hz), named after nineteenth-century German physicist Heinrich Rudolf Hertz (1857-1894), and a Hertz is equal to one cycle of oscillation per second. Higher frequencies are expressed in terms of kilohertz (kHz; 103 or 1,000 cycles per second) or megahertz (MHz; 106 or 1 million cycles per second.) Wavelength (represented by the symbol abbreviated λ, the Greek letter lambda) is the distance between a crest and the adjacent crest, or a trough and an adjacent trough, of a wave. The higher the frequency, the shorter the wavelength.

Another parameter for describing wave motion—one that is mathematically independent from the quantities so far described—is amplitude, or the maximum displacement of particles from a position of stable equilibrium. For an ocean wave, amplitude is the distance from either the crest or the trough to the level that the ocean would maintain if it were perfectly still.

Superposition and Interference

Superposition

The principle of superposition holds that when several individual but similar physical events occur in close proximity, the resulting effect is the sum of the magnitude of the separate events. This is akin to the popular expression, "The whole is greater than the sum of the parts," and it has numerous applications in physics.

Where the strength of a gravitational field is being measured, for instance, superposition dictates that the strength of that field at any given point is the sum of the mass of the individual particles in that field. In the realm of electromagnetic force, the same statement applies, though the units being added are electrical charges or magnetic poles, rather than quantities of mass. Likewise, in an electrical circuit, the total current or voltage is the sum of the individual currents and voltages in that circuit.

Superposition applies only in equations for linear events—that is, phenomena that involve movement along a straight line. Waves are linear phenomena, and, thus, the principle describes the behavior of all waves when they come into contact with one another. If two or more waves enter the same region of space at the same time, then, at any instant, the total disturbance produced by the waves at any point is equal to the sum of the disturbances produced by the individual waves.

Interference

The principle of superposition does not require that waves actually combine; rather, the net effect is as though they were combined. The actual combination or joining of two or more waves at a given point in space is called interference, and, as a result, the waves produce a single wave whose properties are determined by the properties of the individual waves.

If two waves of the same wavelength occupy the same space in such a way that their crests and troughs align, the wave they produce will have an amplitude greater than that possessed by either wave initially. This is known as constructive interference. The more closely the waves are in phase—that is, perfectly aligned—the more constructive the interference.

It is also possible that two or more waves can come together such that the trough of one meets the crest of the other, or vice versa. In this case, what happens is destructive interference, and the resulting amplitude is the difference between the values for the individual waves. If the waves are perfectly unaligned—in other words, if the trough of one exactly meets the crest of the other—their amplitudes cancel out, and the result is no wave at all.

Resonance

It is easy to confuse interference with resonance, and, therefore, a word should be said about the latter phenomenon. The term resonance describes a situation in which force is applied to an oscillator at the point of maximum amplitude. In this way, the motion of the outside force is perfectly matched to that of the oscillator, making possible a transfer of energy. As with interference, resonance implies alignment between two physical entities; however, there are several important differences.

Resonance can involve waves, as, for instance, when sound waves resonate with the vibrations of an oscillator, causing a transfer of energy that sometimes produces dramatic results. (See essay on Resonance.) But in these cases, a wave is interacting with an oscillator, not a wave with a wave, as in situations of interference. Furthermore, whereas resonance entails a transfer of energy, interference involves a combination of energy.

Transfer Vs. Combination

The importance of this distinction is easy to see if one substitutes money for energy, and people for objects. If one passes on a sum of money to another person, a business, or an institution—as a loan, repayment of a loan, a purchase, or a gift—this is an example of a transfer. On the other hand, when married spouses each earn paychecks, their cash is combined.

Transfer thus indicates that the original holder of the cash (or energy) no longer has it. Yet, if the holder of the cash combines funds with those of another, both share rights to an amount of money greater than the amount each originally owned. This is analogous to constructive interference.

On the other hand, a husband and wife (or any other group of people who pool their cash) also share liabilities, and, thus, a married person may be subject to debt incurred by his or her spouse. If one spouse creates debt so great that the other spouse cannot earn enough to maintain the payments, this painful situation is analogous to destructive interference.

Real-Life Applications

Mechanical Waves

One of the easiest ways to observe interference is by watching the behavior of mechanical waves. Drop a stone into a still pond, and watch how its waves ripple: this, as with most waveforms in water, is an example of a surface wave, or one that displays aspects of both transverse and longitudinal wave motion. Thus, as the concentric circles of a longitudinal wave ripple outward in one dimension, there are also transverse movements along a plane perpendicular to that of the longitudinal wave.

While the first wave is still rippling across the water, drop another stone close to the place where the first one was dropped. Now, there are two surface waves, crests and troughs colliding and interfering. In some places, they will interfere constructively, producing a wave—or rather, a portion of a wave—that is greater in amplitude than either of the original waves. At other places, there will be destructive interference, with some waves so perfectly out of phase that at one instant in time, a given spot on the water may look as though it had not been disturbed at all.

One of the interesting aspects of this interaction is the lack of uniformity in the instances of interference. As suggested in the preceding paragraph, it is usually not entire waves, but merely portions of waves, that interfere constructively or destructively. The result is that a seemingly simple event—dropping two stones into a still pond—produces a dazzling array of colliding circles, broken by outwardly undisturbed areas of destructive interference.

A similar phenomenon, though manifested by the interaction of geometric lines rather than concentric circles, occurs when two power boats pass each other on a lake. The first boat chops up the water, creating a wake that widens behind it: when seen from the air, the boat appears to be at the apex of a triangle whose sides are formed by rippling eddies of water.

Now, another boat passes through the wake of the first, only it is going in the opposite direction and producing its own ever-widening wake as it goes. As the waves from the two boats meet, some are in phase, but, more often than not, they are only partly in phase, or they possess differing wavelengths. Therefore, the waves at least partially cancel out one another in places, and in other places, reinforce one another. The result is an interesting patchwork of patterns when seen from the air.

Sound Waves

In Tune and Out of Tune

The relationships between musical notes can be intriguing, and though tastes in music vary, most people know when music is harmonious and when it is discordant. As discussed in the essay on frequency, this harmony or discord can be equated to the mathematical relationships between the frequencies of specific notes: the lower the numbers involved in the ratio, the more pleasing the sound.

The ratio between the frequency of middle C and that of its first harmonic—that is, the C note exactly one octave above it—is a nice, clean 1:2. If one were to play a song in the key of C-which, on a piano, involves only the "white notes" C-D-E-F-G-A-B—everything should be perfectly harmonious and (presumably) pleasant to the ear. But what if the piano itself is out of tune? Or what if one key is out of tune with the others?

The result, for anyone who is not tone-deaf, produces an overall impression of unpleasantness: it might be a bit hard to identify the source of this discomfort, but it is clear that something is amiss. At best, an out-of-tune piano might sound like something that belonged in a saloon from an old Western; at worst, the sound of notes that do not match their accustomed frequencies can be positively grating.

How a Tuning Fork Works

To rectify the situation, a professional piano tuner uses a tuning fork, an instrument that produces a single frequency—say, 264 Hz, which is the frequency of middle C. The piano tuner strikes the tuning fork, and at the same time strikes the appropriate key on the piano. If their frequencies are perfectly aligned, so is the sound of both; but, more likely, there will be interference, both constructive and destructive.

As time passes—measured in seconds or even fractions of seconds—the sounds of the tuning fork and that of the piano key will alternate between constructive and destructive interference. In the case of constructive interference, their combined sound will become louder than the individual sounds of either; and when the interference is destructive, the sound of both together will be softer than that produced by either the fork or the key.

The piano tuner listens for these fluctuations of loudness, which are called beats, and adjusts the tension in the appropriate piano string until the beats disappear completely. As long as there are beats, the piano string and the tuning fork will produce together a frequency that is the average of the two: if, for instance, the out-of-tune middle C string vibrates at 262 Hz, the resulting frequency will be 263 Hz.

Difference Tones

Another interesting aspect of the interaction between notes is the "difference tone," created by discord, which the human ear perceives as a third tone. Though E and F are both part of the C scale, when struck together, the sound is highly discordant. In light of what was said above about ratios between frequencies, this dissonance is fitting, as the ratio here involves relatively high numbers—15:16.

When two notes are struck together, they produce a combination tone, perceived by the human ear as a third tone. If the two notes are harmonious, the "third tone" is known as a summation tone, and is equal to the combined frequencies of the two notes. But if the combination is dissonant, as in the case of E and F, the third tone is known as a difference tone, equal to the difference in frequencies. Since an E note vibrates at 330 Hz, and an F note at 352 Hz, the resulting difference tone is equal to 22 Hz.

Destructive Interference in Sound Waves

When music is played in a concert hall, it reverberates off the walls of the auditorium. Assuming the place is well designed acoustically, these bouncing sound waves will interfere constructively, and the auditorium comes alive with the sound of the music. In other situations, however, the sound waves may interfere destructively, and the result is a certain muffled deadness to the sound.

Clearly, in a music hall, destructive interference is a problem; but there are cases in which it can be a benefit—situations, that is, in which the purpose, indeed, is to deaden the sound. One example is an automobile muffler. A car's exhaust system makes a great deal of noise, and, thus, if a car does not have a proper muffler, it creates a great deal of noise pollution. A muffler counteracts this by producing a sound wave out of phase with that of the exhaust system; hence, it cancels out most of the noise.

Destructive interference can also be used to reduce sound in a room. Once again, a machine is calibrated to generate sound waves that are perfectly out of phase with the offending noise—say, the hum of another machine. The resulting effect conveys the impression that there is no noise in the room, though, in fact, the sound waves are still there; they have merely canceled each other out.

Electromagnetic Waves

In 1801, English physicist Thomas Young (1773-1829), known for Young's modulus of elasticity became the first scientist to identify interference in light waves. Challenging the corpuscular theory of light put forward by Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727), Young set up an experiment in which a beam of light passed through two closely spaced pinholes onto a screen. If light was truly made of particles, he said, the beams would project two distinct points onto the screen. Instead, what he saw was a pattern of interference.

In fact, Newton was partly right, but Young's discovery helped advance the view of light as a wave, which is also partly right. (According to quantum theory, developed in the twentieth century, light behaves both as waves and as particles.) The interference in the visible spectrum that Young witnessed was manifested as bright and dark bands. These bands are known as fringes—variations in intensity not unlike the beats created in some instances of sound interference, described above.

Oily Films and Rainbows

Many people have noticed the strangely beautiful pattern of colors generated when light interacts with an oily substance, as when light reflected on a soap bubble produces an astonishing array of shades. Sometimes, this can happen in situations not otherwise aesthetically pleasing: an oily film in a parking lot, left there by a car's leaky crankcase, can produce a rainbow of colors if the sunlight hits it just right.

This happens because the thickness of the oil causes a delay in reflection of the light beam. Some colors pass through the film, becoming delayed and, thus, getting out of phase with the reflected light on the surface of the film. These shades destructively interfere to such an extent that the waves are cancelled, rendering them invisible. Other colors reflect off the surface so that they are perfectly in phase with the light traveling through the film, and appear as an attractive swirl of color on the surface of the oil.

The phenomenon of light-wave interference with oily or filmy surfaces has the effect of filtering light, and, thus, has a number of applications in areas relating to optics: sunglasses, lenses for binoculars or cameras, and even visors for astronauts. In each case, unfiltered light could be harmful or, at least, inconvenient for the user, and the destructive interference eliminates certain colors and unwanted reflections.

Radio Waves

Visible light is only a small part of the electromagnetic spectrum, whose broad range of wave phenomena are, likewise, subject to constructive or destructive interference. After visible light, the area of the spectrum most people experience during an average day is the realm of relatively low-frequency, long-wave length radio waves and microwaves, the latter including television broadcast signals.

People who rely on an antenna for their TV reception are likely to experience interference at some point. However, an increasing number of Americans use either cable or satellite systems to pick up TV programs. These are much less susceptible to interference, due to the technology of coaxial cable, on the one hand, and digital compression, on the other. Thus, interference in television reception is a gradually diminishing problem.

Interference among radio signals continues to be a challenge, since most people still hear the radio via old-fashioned means rather than through new technology, such as the Internet. A number of interference problems are created by activity on the Sun, which has an enormously powerful electromagnetic field. Obviously, such interference is beyond the control of most radio listeners, but according to a Web page set up by WHKY Radio in Hickory, North Carolina, there are a number of things listeners can do to decrease interference in their own households.

Among the suggestions offered at the WHKY Web site is this: "Nine times out of ten, if your radio is near a computer, it will interfere with your radio. Computers send out all kinds of signals that your radio 'thinks' is a real radio signal. Try to locate your radio away from computers… especially the monitor." The Web site listed a number of other household appliances, as well as outside phenomena such as power lines or thunderstorms, that can contribute to radio interference.

Where to Learn More

Beiser, Arthur. Physics, 5th ed. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1991.

Bloomfield, Louis A. "How Things Work: Radio." How Things Work (Web site). <http://rabi.phys.virginia.edu/HTW//radio.html> (April 27, 2001).

Harrison, David. "Sound" (Web site). <http://www.newi.ac.uk/buckley/sound.html> (April 27, 2001).

Interference Handbook/Federal Communications Commission (Web site). <http://www.fcc.gov/cib/Publications/tvibook.html> (April 27, 2001).

Internet Resources for Sound and Light (Web site). <http://electro.sau.edu/SLResources.html> (April 25, 2001).

"Light—A-to-Z Science." DiscoverySchool.com (Web site). <http://school.discovery.com/homeworkhelp/worldbook/atozscience/l/323260.html> (April 27, 2001).

Oxlade, Chris. Light and Sound. Des Plaines, IL: Heinemann Library, 2000.

"Sound Wave—Constructive and Destructive Interference" (Web site). <http://csgrad.cs.vt.edu/~chin/interference.html> (April 27, 2001).

Topp, Patricia. This Strange Quantum World and You. Nevada City, CA: Blue Dolphin, 1999.

WHKY Radio and TV (Web site). <http://www.whky.com/antenna.html> (April 27, 2001).


 
Sci-Tech Encyclopedia: Electrical interference

Disturbance to the normal or expected operation of electrical or electronic devices, equipment, and systems. Electrical interference is sometimes called radio-frequency interference (RFI) or electromagnetic interference (EMI). Electrical noise is a broader term that includes those phenomena that are generally termed electrical interference, but also includes naturally occurring currents or voltages that are more or less continuous and cannot be completely eliminated.

Electrical interference originates from one or more of the following: transmitters such as those used for broadcast, communication, radar, and navigation; artificial incidental emission sources such as from sparking of motor brushes, automotive ignition, and fluorescent lamps; and natural phenomena such as lightning and electrostatic discharges. The interference emissions may be radiated through space or conducted along the paths of electrical wires in power lines and signal cables. See also Communications cable; Electromagnetic radiation; Transmission lines.

There are several means of mitigating electrical interference, including grounding, bonding, shielding, filtering, and transient control. There are two major approaches. One is to reduce radiation from boxes, cabinets, racks, and consoles by the design of multilayer printed circuit boards and backplanes, or to use metal or metallized plastic cases with EMI-protected apertures. The other involves reduction of radiation to or from the interconnecting cable by using filter pin connectors or foil-wrap shields terminated with complete coverage by the connector backshell at the respective box bulkhead. See also Electric filter; Electric transient; Electrical noise; Electrical shielding; Electromagnetic compatibility.


 
Thesaurus: interference

noun

    The act or an instance of interfering or intruding: intervention, intrusion, meddling, obtrusion. See participate/abstain.

 
Antonyms: interference

n

Definition: meddling, impedance
Antonyms: aid, assistance, help


 

In physics, the net effect of combining two or more wave trains moving on intersecting or coincident paths. Constructive interference occurs if two components have the same frequency and phase; the wave amplitudes are reinforced. Destructive interference occurs when the two waves are out of phase by one-half period (see periodic motion); if the waves are of equal amplitude, they cancel each other. Two waves moving in the same direction but having slightly different frequencies interfere constructively at regular intervals, resulting in a pulsating frequency called a beat. Two waves traveling in opposite directions but having equal frequencies interfere constructively in some places and destructively in others, resulting in a standing wave.

For more information on interference, visit Britannica.com.

 

1. An effect that occurs when training to improve two or more fitness components in the same microcycle (daily or weekly training sessions; see periodization) leads to a lower gain in any one component than would have been expected if it had been trained separately.

2. Conflict that occurs when two tasks are performed simultaneously, resulting in a lower quality of performance

3. Difficulty in learning or remembering a task or event due to confusion between the material that needs to be remembered and another experience occurring before or after the task or event in question. See also proactive inhibition; retroactive inhibition; capacity interference; structural interference.

 
Columbia Encyclopedia: interference,
in physics, the effect produced by the combination or superposition of two systems of Waves, in which these waves reinforce, neutralize, or in other ways interfere with each other. Interference is observed in both sound waves and electromagnetic waves, especially those of visible light and radio.

Interference in Sound Waves

When two sound waves occur at the same time and are in the same phase, i.e., when the condensations of the two coincide and hence their rarefactions also, the waves reinforce each other and the sound becomes louder. This is known as constructive interference. On the other hand, two sound waves occurring simultaneously and having the same intensity neutralize each other if the rarefactions of the one coincide with the condensations of the other, i.e., if they are of opposite phase. This canceling is known as destructive interference. In this case, the result is silence.

Alternate reinforcement and neutralization (or weakening) take place when two sound waves differing slightly in frequency are superimposed. The audible result is a series of pulsations or, as these pulsations are called commonly, beats, caused by the alternate coincidence of first a condensation of the one wave with a condensation of the other and then a condensation with a rarefaction. The beat frequency is equal to the difference between the frequencies of the interfering sound waves.

Interference in Light Waves

Light waves reinforce or neutralize each other in very much the same way as sound waves. If, for example, two light waves each of one color (monochromatic waves), of the same amplitude, and of the same frequency are combined, the interference they exhibit is characterized by so-called fringes—a series of light bands (resulting from reinforcement) alternating with dark bands (caused by neutralization). Such a pattern is formed either by light passing through two narrow slits and being diffracted (see diffraction), or by light passing through a single slit. In the case of two slits, each slit acts as a light source, producing two sets of waves that may combine or cancel depending upon their phase relationship. In the case of a single slit, each point within the slit acts as a light source. In all cases, for light waves to demonstrate such behavior, they must emanate from the same source; light from distinct sources has too many random differences to permit interference patterns.

The relative positions of light and dark lines depend upon the wavelength of the light, among other factors. Thus, if white light, which is made up of all colors, is used instead of monochromatic light, bands of color are formed because each color, or wavelength, is reinforced at a different position. This fact is utilized in the diffraction grating, which forms a spectrum by diffraction and interference of a beam of light incident on it. Newton's rings also are the result of the interference of light. They are formed concentrically around the point of contact between a glass plate and a slightly convex lens set upon it or between two lenses pressed together; they consist of bright rings separated by dark ones when monochromatic light is used, or of alternate spectrum-colored and black rings when white light is used. Various natural phenomena are the result of interference, e.g., the colors appearing in soap bubbles and the iridescence of mother-of-pearl and other substances.

Interference as a Scientific Tool

The experiments of Thomas Young first illustrated interference and definitely pointed the way to a wave theory of light. A. J. Fresnel's experiments clearly demonstrated that the interference phenomena could be explained adequately only upon the basis of a wave theory. The thickness of a very thin film such as the soap-bubble wall can be measured by an instrument called the interferometer. When the wavelength of the light is known, the interferometer indicates the thickness of the film by the interference patterns it forms. The reverse process, i.e., the measurement of the length of an unknown light wave, can also be carried out by the interferometer.

The Michelson interferometer used in the Michelson-Morley experiment of 1887 to determine the velocity of light had a half-silvered mirror to split an incident beam of light into two parts at right angles to one another. The two halves of the beam were then reflected off mirrors and rejoined. Any difference in the speed of light along the paths could be detected by the interference pattern. The failure of the experiment to detect any such difference threw doubt on the existence of the ether and thus paved the way for the special theory of relativity.

Another type of interferometer devised by Michelson has been applied in measuring the diameters of certain stars. The radio interferometer consists of two or more radio telescopes separated by fairly large distances (necessary because radio waves are much longer than light waves) and is used to pinpoint and study various celestial sources of radiation in the radio range. Astronomical interferometers consisting of two or more optical telescopes are used to enhance visible images of distant celestial objects. See radio astronomy; virtual telescope.


 
Law Encyclopedia: Interference
This entry contains information applicable to United States law only.

In the law of patents, the presence of two pending applications, or an existing patent and a pending application that encompass an identical invention or discovery.

When interference exists, the Patent and Trademark Office conducts an investigation to ascertain the priority of invention between the conflicting applications, or the application and the patent. A patent is customarily granted to the earlier invention.

 
Science Dictionary: interference

The disturbance that results when two waves come together at a single point in space; the disturbance is the sum of the contribution of each wave. For example, if two crests of identical waves arrive together, the net disturbance will be twice as large as each incoming wave; if the crest of one wave arrives with the trough of another, there will be no disturbance at all.

  • One common example of interference is the appearance of dark bands when a light is viewed through a window screen.
  •  
    Veterinary Dictionary: interference

    In virology, the inhibition of viral replication by the presence of other viruses. Most instances of viral interference are mediated by interferon (inf).

    • ultrasound i. lines — in ultrasonography, white lines across the image, usually caused by poor contact between the skin and transducer.


     
    Word Tutor: interference
    pronunciation

    IN BRIEF: Any obstruction that impedes or is burdensome.

    pronunciation We had a lot of interference on the radio as we drove through the high mountain pass, so we missed hearing the news.

     
    Wikipedia: interference


    Interference of two circular waves - Wavelength (decreasing bottom to top) and Wave centers distance (increasing to the right). Absolute value snapshots of the (real-valued, scalar) wave field. As time progresses, the wave fronts would move outwards from the two centers, but the dark regions (destructive interference) stay fixed.
    Interference of two circular waves - Wavelength (decreasing bottom to top) and Wave centers distance (increasing to the right). Absolute value snapshots of the (real-valued, scalar) wave field. As time progresses, the wave fronts would move outwards from the two centers, but the dark regions (destructive interference) stay fixed.

    Interference is the addition (superposition) of two or more waves that results in a new wave pattern.

    As most commonly used, the term interference usually refers to the interaction of waves which are correlated or coherent with each other, either because they come from the same source or because they have the same or nearly the same frequency.

    Two non-monochromatic waves are only fully coherent with each other if they both have exactly the same range of wavelengths and the same phase differences at each of the constituent wavelengths.

    The total phase difference is derived from the sum of both the path difference and the initial phase difference (if the waves are generated from 2 or more different sources). It can then be concluded whether the waves reaching a point are in phase(constructive interference) or out of phase (destructive interference).

    Theory

    The principle of superposition of waves states that the resultant displacement at a point is equal to the sum of the displacements of different waves at that point. If a crest of a wave meets a crest of another wave at the same point then the crests interfere constructively and the resultant wave amplitude is greater. If a crest of a wave meets a trough of another wave then they interfere destructively, and the overall amplitude is decreased.

    This form of interference can occur whenever a wave can propagate from a source to a destination by two or more paths of different length. Two or more sources can only be used to produce interference when there is a fixed phase relation between them, but in this case the interference generated is the same as with a single source; see Huygens' principle.

    Experiments

    Thomas Young's double-slit experiment showed interference phenomena where two beams of light which are coherent interfere to produce a pattern.

    The beams of light both have the same wavelength range and at the center of the interference pattern. They have the same phases at each wavelength, as they both come from the same source.

    Interference patterns

    For two coherent sources, the spacial separation between sources is half the wavelength times the number of nodal lines

    Light from any source can be used to obtain interference patterns, for example, Newton's rings can be produced with sunlight. However, in general white light is less suited for producing clear interference patterns, as it is a mix of a full spectrum of colours, that each have different spacing of the interference fringes. Sodium light is close to monochromatic and is thus more suitable for producing interference patterns. The most suitable is laser light because it is almost perfectly monochromatic.

    Constructive and destructive interference

    Interference pattern produced with a Michelson interferometer. Bright bands are the result of constructive interference while the dark bands are the result of destructive interference.
    Enlarge
    Interference pattern produced with a Michelson interferometer. Bright bands are the result of constructive interference while the dark bands are the result of destructive interference.

    Consider two waves that are in phase,with amplitudes A1 and A2. Their troughs and peaks line up and the resultant wave will have amplitude A = A1 + A2. This is known as constructive interference.

    If the two waves are pi radians, or 180°, out of phase, then one wave's crests will coincide with another wave's troughs and so will tend to cancel out. The resultant amplitude is A = | A1 - A2 | . If A1 = A2, the resultant amplitude will be zero. This is known as destructive interference.

    When two sinusoidal waves superimpose, the resulting waveform depends on the frequency (or wavelength) amplitude and relative phase of the two waves. If the two waves have the same amplitude A and wavelength the resultant waveform will have an amplitude between 0 and 2A depending on whether the two waves are in phase or out of phase.

    combined
    waveform
    Image:Interference of two waves.png
    wave 1
    wave 2

    Two waves in phase Two waves 180° out
    of phase

    General Quantum Interference

    Two point interference in a ripple tank.
    Enlarge
    Two point interference in a ripple tank.


    If a system is in state ψ its wavefunction is described in Dirac or bra-ket notation as:

    |\psi \rang = \sum_i |i\rang \psi_i

    where the |i\rangs specify the different quantum "alternatives" available (technically, they form an eigenvector basis) and the ψi are the probability amplitude coefficients, which are complex numbers.

    The probability of observing the system making a transition or quantum leap from state ψ to a new state φ is the square of the modulus of the scalar or inner product of the two states:

    prob(\psi \Rightarrow \phi) = |\lang \psi |\phi \rang|^2 = |\sum_i\psi^*_i \phi_i |^2 = \sum_{ij} \psi^*_i \psi_j \phi^*_j\phi_i= \sum_{i} |\psi_i|^2|\phi_i|^2 + \sum_{ij;i \ne j} \psi^*_i \psi_j \phi^*_j\phi_i

    where \psi_i = \lang i|\psi \rang (as defined above) and similarly \phi_i = \lang i|\phi \rang are the coefficients of the final state of the system. * is the complex conjugate so that \psi_i^* = \lang \psi|i \rang etc.

    Now let's consider the situation classically and imagine that the system transited from |\psi \rang to |\phi \rang via an intermediate state |i\rang. Then we would classically expect the probability of the two-step transition to be the sum of all the possible intermediate steps. So we would have

    prob(\psi \Rightarrow \phi) = \sum_i prob(\psi \Rightarrow i \Rightarrow \phi) = \sum_i |\lang \psi |i \rang|^2|\lang i|\phi \rang|^2 = \sum_i|\psi_i|^2 |\phi_i|^2

    The classical and quantum derivations for the transition probability differ by the presence, in the quantum case, of the extra terms \sum_{ij;i \ne j} \psi^*_i \psi_j \phi^*_j\phi_i; these extra quantum terms represent interference between the different ij intermediate "alternatives". These are consequently known as the quantum interference terms, or cross terms. This is a purely quantum effect and is a consequence of the non-additivity of the probabilities of quantum alternatives.

    The interference terms vanish, via the mechanism of quantum decoherence, if the intermediate state |i\rang is measured or coupled with the environment[1][2].

    Examples

    A conceptually simple case of interference is a small (compared to wavelength) source - say, a small array of regularly spaced small sources (see diffraction grating).

    Consider the case of a flat boundary (say, between two media with different or simply a flat mirror, onto which the plane wave is incident at some angle. In this case of continuous distribution of sources, constructive interference will only be in specular direction - the direction at which angle with the normal is exactly the same as the angle of incidence. Thus, this results in the law of reflection which is simply the result of constructive interference of a plane wave on a plane surface.

    See also

    References

    1. ^ Wojciech H. Zurek, Decoherence and the transition from quantum to classical, Physics Today, 44, pp 36-44 (1991)
    2. ^ Wojciech H. Zurek, Decoherence, einselection, and the quantum origins of the classical, Reviews of Modern Physics 2003, 75, 715 or [1]

    External links

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    Misspellings: interference

    Common misspelling(s) of interference

    • interferance

     
    Translations: Translations for: Interference

    Dansk (Danish)
    n. - interferens, indgriben, indblanding, forstyrrelse, mellemkomst

    Nederlands (Dutch)
    inmenging, bemoeienis, interferentie, hinder, radiostoring, obstructie

    Français (French)
    n. - ingérence, immixtion, interférence, brouillage, (Radio) parasites, (Ling) interférence

    Deutsch (German)
    n. - Einmischung, Störung, Notzucht

    Ελληνική (Greek)
    n. - επέμβαση, ανάμιξη, παρεμβολή, παράσιτα (ραδιοφώνου), παρέμβαση, ανάμειξη

    Italiano (Italian)
    interferenza

    Português (Portuguese)
    n. - interferência (f)

    Русский (Russian)
    вмешательство, интерференция

    Español (Spanish)
    n. - intervención, intromisión, obstrucción, estorbo, interferencia

    Svenska (Swedish)
    n. - ingripande, hinder, kollision, interferens (fys. el. gram.), störningar

    中文(简体) (Chinese (Simplified))
    冲突, 干涉

    中文(繁體) (Chinese (Traditional))
    n. - 衝突, 干涉

    한국어 (Korean)
    n. - 방해, 간섭, 혼신

    日本語 (Japanese)
    n. - 妨害, 邪魔, 障害, 干渉, 口出し, 妨害行為, 混信

    العربيه (Arabic)
    ‏(الاسم) تدخل, تشوش, عقبه, عائق‏

    עברית (Hebrew)
    n. - ‮הפרעות אטמוספריות לשידורי רדיו, התערבות, חסימה, התערבלות גלים ליצירת גל חדש (פיסיקה)‬


     
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