Wave Speed

Wave speed is a wave property, which may refer to absolute value of:

  • phase velocity, the velocity at which a wave phase propagates at a certain frequency
  • group velocity, the propagation velocity for the envelope of wave groups and often of wave energy, different from the phase velocity for dispersive waves
  • signal velocity, or information velocity, which is the velocity at which a wave carries information
  • front velocity, the velocity at which the first rise of a pulse above zero moves forward

Famous quotes containing the words wave and/or speed:

    “Through the dark cold and the empty desolation,
    The wave cry, the wind cry, the vast waters
    Of the petrel and the porpoise. In my end is my beginning.”
    —T.S. (Thomas Stearns)

    “If it be aught toward the general good,
    Set honor in one eye, and death i’th’ other,
    And I will look on both indifferently;
    For let the gods so speed me as I love
    The name of honor more than I fear death.”
    —William Shakespeare (1564–1616)