Everything Science Grade 12

CHAPTER 11. 2D AND3D WAVEFRONTS 11.3

A simple example of the Huygens Principle is to consider the single wavefront in Fig-

ure 11.2.

wavefront at time t

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wavefront at time t
acts a source of circularwaves

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wavefront at time t + Δt

Figure 11.2: A single wavefront at time t acts as a series of point sources of circular

waves that interfere to give a new wavefront ata time t + Δt. The process continues

and applies to any shapeof waveform.

Example 1: Application of the Huygens Principle

QUESTION

Given the wavefront,