Wavefront

The wave front is a surface on which all points in the same period at a station, such as a sound source have, in wave propagation in a medium.

For periodic waves all points of the wavefront have the same phase. The wave front is moving with the speed of propagation of the waves in the direction of the surface normal above.

The shape of the wavefront depends both on the type of the sender, that is, from its shape, dimensions and directivity. On the other hand, the wave front depends upon the nature of the transmission medium ( eg, air) and the prevailing conditions ( e.g. during sound propagation of temperatures, air movement, boundary surfaces, etc.)

In the simplest case, the operation of an isotropic radiator zeroth order in an isotropic and homogeneous transmission medium produces a spherical wave with spherical wavefronts.

For a plane wave, the wave Fonten planes are perpendicular to the propagation direction, with periodic excitation in the wavelength spacing. A spherical wave in a small solid angle area (or further away from the source ) similar to a plane wave.

According to Huygens' principle, each point of a wave front can be considered as the starting point of a spherical wavelet. The resulting wavefront arises then from the superposition of elementary waves. Thus, the refraction and diffraction of wave fronts can be calculated (see wave optics ).