Reflection of Waves at a Boundary

Wave pulse traveling on a string

Reflection from a HARD boundary

At a fixed hard boundary, the displacement remains zero and
the reflected wave changes its polarity (undergoes a 180°
phase change). According to Newton's third law, the wall must
be exerting an equal downward force and the force creates a
wave pulse that propagates from right to left with opposite
polarity

Reflection from a SOFT boundary

At a free soft boundary, the restoring force is zero, since
the net vertical force at the free end must be zero. and the
reflected wave has the same polarity (no phase change) as
the incident wave.
Transmission of Waves at a Boundary

From high speed to low speed (low density to high density)

From low speed to high speed (high density to low density)

Class Assignment IV

Consider a wave propagating in x axis with frequency 𝑓, wavelength λ and

velocity v. Calculate the reflection and transmission coefficient of the wave
if the wave hits (i) on a surface with infinite impedance and (ii) on a surface
with very low impedance. Illustrate the results graphically.