Waves-Matter Interactions: Reflection of Waves

Whenever a wave encounters a new medium, causing the wavespeed to change, part of the wave will be reflected and head back to where the wave came from and part of the wave will be transmitted and continue traveling into the new medium. In this page we will focus on the wave that is reflected back from the boundary between the old and new media.

Experiment with the simulation below to develop a more thorough understanding of the reflection of waves. Change the angle at which the incident wave strikes the boundary. What happens to the reflected wave? Is the wavelength of the reflected wave the same as that of the incident wave? Why/why not? Notice that in order to match the wave displacement as the wave fronts reflect off the boundary, the direction of travel of the reflected ray will deviate from the normal by the same amount as the incident wave (as long as the wavelengths are the same).

Use the above simulation to answer the following questions?