Making Waves

Speaker: Professor Alan Davies

We all know something about waves. We’ve seen them in the sea and as ripples on a pond. We know that sound travels to our ears as a wave and that some properties of light can be explained by its wave nature. However, the mechanisms by which waves are propagated is perhaps not so well-known. A particular feature of waves is that they are vibrations and it is this oscillatory behaviour that allows us to describe them in a quantitative sense. We shall start with this simple idea to show that energy is transferred from one location to another. Many of the properties of waves (e.g. travelling and standing waves, interference, Doppler effect, etc.) will be described and illustrated by a wide variety of examples including waves on strings, water waves, seismic waves and tsunamis, waves in quantum mechanics and electromagnetic waves.

About the speaker

Alan Davies is Professor Emeritus, Mathematics at the University of Hertfordshire where he was Head of Department until his retirement. Since then, he has spent most of his time working with school pupils and presenting mathematics and science to general audiences of all ages.

Part of the IOP London and South East (LSE) region Autumn/Winter 2024-2025 Physics Talks Series.

Refreshments will be available from 6pm.

Parking is free around the Lindop Building after 6pm.

The lecture is free and open to all but registration is required. Please register via the Book Now button.