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:

    “We are caught up Mr. Perry on a great wave whether we will or no, a great wave of expansion and progress. All these mechanical inventions—telephones, electricity, steel bridges, horseless vehicles—they are all leading somewhere. It’s up to us to be on the inside in the forefront of progress.”
    —John Dos Passos (1896–1970)

    “Among the laws controlling human societies there is one more precise and clearer, it seems to me, than all the others. If men are to remain civilized or to become civilized, the art of association must develop and improve among them at the same speed as equality of conditions spreads.”
    —Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–1859)