Standing wave

standing wave

1. (Also called stationary wave.) A wave that is stationary with respect to the medium in which it is embedded, for example, two equal gravity waves moving in opposite directions.

   
   

   The antinodes (points of maximum amplitude) oscillate while the nodes remain stationary.

   
   
2. In oceanography, wave motion in an enclosed or semienclosed sea, where the incident and reflected progressive waves combine to give a node of zero tidal amplitude.

   
   

   Maximum tidal amplitudes are found at the head of the basin where reflection occurs. No energy is transmitted in a standing wave, nor is there any progression of the wave pattern.

   
   

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Often the greatest magnitude at a given point of any spatially and temporally varying physical quantity governed by a wave equation; can also mean the spatial part of a time-harmonic wave function.