sources:λ:60speed:1.5
🌊 Wave Interference — What's going on?
Drop a pebble in a still pond: circular ripples spread outward.
Drop two pebbles: the ripples meet and interfere.
WHERE TWO CRESTS MEET → they add up → bigger wave (bright band)
WHERE A CREST MEETS A TROUGH → they cancel → flat water (dark band)
This animation computes that at every pixel. For each point on screen,
we measure the distance to each source and evaluate:
A(x, y, t) = Σ cos(k · rᵢ − ωt)
k = 2π / λ wavenumber — how tightly packed the waves are
rᵢ = distance from pixel to source i
ωt = phase that advances each frame, making waves appear to travel
λ = wavelength — drag the slider to see fringes widen or tighten
Bright pixels: waves arrive in phase and reinforce each other.
Dark pixels: waves arrive out of phase and cancel.
THE QUANTUM CONNECTION
This is not just a water analogy. Electrons, photons, and all quantum
particles behave exactly like this. In the famous double-slit experiment:
• A single electron is fired at a barrier with two slits.
• No detector tells us which slit it went through.
• On the screen behind, thousands of electrons land in the same
bright/dark fringe pattern you see here — even one at a time.
The electron travels as a wave through BOTH slits simultaneously,
interferes with itself, and only "decides" where it is when it hits
the screen. The math governing that wave is Schrödinger's equation,
and the interference term looks identical to what you see here.
That's the core strangeness of quantum mechanics: the wave is real,
not a metaphor. The particle IS the wave — until you look.
CONTROLS
• Drag the colored dots to reposition the sources
• λ (wavelength) — longer waves = wider, fewer fringes
• sources — add a third emitter and watch the pattern change
• speed — rate at which the wavefronts travel