Sec. 4.4 191 radiation, That in turn depends, as we have seen, on whether the driving frequency is below or above the resonance frequency. Since all the mole- cules are at steady state, there is no need to “worry” about the fact that the phase velocity can exceed c. Nomenclature: Why do we alteays consider E and neglect B? We don't always, but we often do. Part of the reason we usually express the effect of electromagnetic waves in terms of E and suppress B from the formulas is the following: When electromagnetic waves interact with a charged par- ticle of charge q and velocity v, the force on the particle is given by the Lorentz force (Vol. Il, Sec. 5.2) Faqk+qtxB In an electromagnetic traveling wave in vacuum, it turns out that E and B have the same instantaneous magnitude. Therefore, the magnitude of the force contributed by B is smaller than that contributed by E by a factor of order |v/c|. Now, it turns out that when E and B are due to ordinary light sources or even due to a powerful laser, the fields E and B are sufficiently weak so that the maximum velocity |vj attained in the steady-state motion of driven electrons in a piece of ordinary materials is tiny compared with c. Thus, there are a large number of physical situations where we can neglect the force due to B. That is why we emphasize E. Sometimes, however, the effects of B can dominate, small as they are according to the above discussion. And, of course, if E and B are not due to radiation (traveling waves) but are (for example) static fields due to inde- pendent charges and currents, then B and E are not constrained to have the same magnitude. For example, we could then have |E| = 0 and |B] = 100 kilogauss. 44° Impedance and Energy Flux In studying modes and standing waves, we found that a continuous medium can be characterized by two parameters, one denoting a “return force,” the other “inertia.” For a continuous string, the equilibrium tension Ty gives the return force, and the mass density po gives the inertia. For the low- pass transmission line, the corresponding parameters are (C/a)-, the in- verse of the shunt capacitance per unit length, and L/a, the inductance per unit length. For longitudinal waves on a spring, the return force parame- ter is Ka, and the inertial parameter is M/a = po. For sound waves, the “springiness” is given by ypo, the inertia by the volume mass density po. In all cases, the standing wave modes behave in a way that is analogous to a simple harmonic oscillator. (For coupled pendulums or a band-pass transmission line, we need another parameter, the low-frequency cutoff.)192 Traveling Waves Traveling waves behave very differently from standing waves; they transport energy and momentum. The phase relations are different from those for standing waves. An extended system carrying traveling waves does not behave like “one big harmonic oscillator,” as it does when it car- ries standing waves. Thus the harmonic oscillator parameters, return force and inertia, are not the best physical parameters to describe a medium car- rying traveling waves. One quantity that does characterize a medium carrying traveling waves is the phase velocity o,. For transverse waves on a string, this is given by = /, (93) Pe which is just a certain combination of the return force and inertia param- eters Ty and po. An independent combination of Tp and po is given by Z= Vol. (94) This quantity is called the characteristic impedance, or simply impedance, for transverse waves on a continuous string, As we shall show, the impe- dance determines the rate at which energy is radiated onto the string by a given driving force. Thus it tums out that the phase velocity and the im- pedance are the two natural parameters to describe traveling waves in a given medium. Example 8: Transverse traveling waves on continuous string. ‘Suppose we have a continuous string stretching from left to right, with the left end at z = 0 driven transversely by a harmonically oscillating force. The system is shown in Fig. 4.8. Let us designate the connection by which the driving force is imparted to the string—the “transmitter output termi- nal” —by the letter L (for left), and let us designate the string immediately in contact with the terminal by the letter R (for right). At equilibrium (Fig. 4.84), we have no transverse component of force on L. The force along = is the equilibrium tension Tp. For the general configuration of Fig. 4.8b, the string tension is TZ. The transverse component of force ex- erted by the string on the transmitter output terminal, F(R on L), is given by FAR on L) = Tsind = (Teos 6) S08 = (Tees @) Saf = Totand ay . = Th (95)Sec. 44 193 Fig. 48 Emission of transverse travel- ing waves. (a) Equilibrium. (b) Gen- eral configuration. £ 0 = Ty — ae Po (@) T e 4 (0,1) ete. + se (b) The result (95) holds exactly for an ideal slinky, which has T = Tp/cos 8. It also holds for any spring for small angles 0. Characteristic impedance. Now let us assume that the transmitter is driving a completely open medium (the string) at steady state, so that it is emitting traveling waves in the +2 direction. Then ¥(z,) has the form Wat) = A cos (wt — ke). (96) Differentiation gives194 Traveling Waves Comparing Eqs. (97) and (98) and using v, = w/k, we see that for a travel- ing wave traveling in the +z direction ey nes ab at (9) Inserting Eq, (99) into Eq. (95), we obtain (for traveling waves) F(R on L) = (100) Now, @/2t is just the transverse velocity of the string at the point where it is attached to the transmitter output terminal. ‘The quantity To/v, is a constant. Thus we have found that when the transmitter emits traveling waves the “reaction force” exerted by the medium (the string R) on the transmitter output terminal L is a damping force or drag force. That is, when the transmitter emits traveling waves in the direction L to R, the string opposes the motion with a force negatively proportional to the ve- locity that is imposed on it. The proportionality constant is called the characteristic impedance, Z: FAR on L) = aon) where (102) For the transverse traveling waves on a continuous string we have (To units of cm/sec. (103) Po Then Zz VTop5 units of dyne/(em/sec). (104) Transmitter output power. ‘The most characteristic thing about a damping force is that it “dissipates” or “absorbs” energy. In the present example, itis best to say that the string absorbs energy in the form of “radiation” by the transmitter output. The energy lost by the transmitter has not been dissipated, in the sense that it has not been “degraded” into “heat.” In- stead it has been radiated onto the string, which can transport it to a dis- tant “receiver,” where it can be completely recovered (as we shall learn later). The radiated output power is given by the product of the transverse force exerted by the transmitter on the string at z = 0 times the transverse velocity of the string at z = 0. Using the fact that F,(L on R) is the nega- tive of F,(R on L) (which is Newton's third law) and using Eq. (101), we findSec. 4.4 195 the instantaneous output power P(t) to be given (in units of erg/sec) by P(t) = F,(L on R) a (general) (2%) = 224) eaveing ware, (105) Pt) The first equality in Eq, (105) is general. The second is not; it holds only for traveling waves. In Eq, (105) we have expressed the output power in terms of the wave quantity 2¥/@t, which corresponds to the instantaneous transverse velocity of the string (at z = 0) in units of cm/sec. Another equally interesting and important wave quantity is the transverse force F(R on L) given (in units of dynes) by Eq, (95). The transmitter output power can be expressed in terms of this quantity by means of Eqs. (95) and (99) P(t) = FAL on nat (general) = ay} oy = [6S] aaa (traveling wave) (106) The first and second equalities in Eq. (106) are general; the third is not; it holds only for traveling waves. We take the trouble to express P(t) in the different but equivalent ways of Eqs. (105) and (106) because we shall always find that there are two physically interesting wave quantities and in some systems we may wish to use one, while in other systems we may wish to use the other. For exam- ple, in the case of sound waves we shall find that the gauge pressure plays a role analogous to that of the transverse return force —Ty y//2z for the string and that the longitudinal air velocity in the sound wave plays a role analogous to the transverse string velocity @4/@t. Similarly, in the case of electromagnetic radiation we shall find that the transverse magnetic field By plays a role analogous to that of the transverse string velocity 2¥/2t, while the transverse electric field E, plays a role analogous to that of the return force —Tp a/0z for the string,Fig. 4.9 Emission of longitudinal trav- ling waves. (a) Equilibrium. (b) Gen- eral configuration. 196 Traveling Waves Energy transport by a traveling wave. The radiated power P(t) emitted at z = 0 by the transmitter in the form of traveling waves is equal to the amount of energy per unit time traveling in the +2 direction past any downstream point . (We are neglecting damping.) In fact, when we derived our results for the energy flow from L to R (left to right) at the transmitter output terminal, we could have been speaking of a general downstream point z instead of the point z=0. The only thing we required was that the medium be carrying traveling waves. If you will re- trace the steps of the derivation with that consideration in mind, you will quickly see that for traveling waves the radiated power passing a given point z in the +z direction is given by expressions analogous to Eqs. (105) and (106), except that the transverse velocity 0y/0¢ and the return force —Tp d/éz are evaluated at the general point z instead of at z = 0. Thus for a traveling wave on a string, we have peop (aon at t Post) = at) = 4 [1p 459 R= Toa (208) Example 9: Radiation of longitudinal waves on a spring. Next we consider the emission of longitudinal waves of compression and rarefaction on a spring. We shall be able to adapt these results to describe the radiation of sound waves, using the simple method of Newton (but correcting his famous oversight). The system is shown in Fig, 4.9. In the equations of motion for longitudinal motion of a beaded spring, the quantity Ka enters in exactly the same way as does the equilibrium tension To in the equations of motion for transverse oscillation of the beaded spring. (See Eq. (2.77), Sec. 2.4, and the discussion immediately following it.) ‘That is why the phase velocities are obtained one from the 0 @ 2a ek 1 I ! oi LA T-©-ATN-©— 4 )Sec. 4.4 197 other by interchanging Ty and Ka [see Eq. (27), Sec. 4.2]. Similarly, we can find the characteristic impedance and the energy flux relations for longitudinal waves on a continuous spring by simply substituting Ka for To in our results obtained for transverse oscillation. ‘Thus, from Eqs. (103), (104), (107), and (108) we obtain for longitudinal waves the results JE. t= Vib (109) 70 and the power flow in a traveling wave (in erg/sec), P, Ret) = | MEOP = F [na HEP (110) The quantity ¥(z,t) is the displacement from its equilibrium position of that part of the spring having equilibrium position x; it is positive if the displacement is in the +z direction. The corresponding velocity is OY(z,t)/dt. The quantity —Ka 2y(z,t)/dz turns out to be the force in the +2 direction exerted on that part of the spring with equilibrium position to the right of point z by that having equilibrium position to the left of point 2, after the equilibrium value of that force, Fo, has been subtracted out (Prob. 4.29): FAL on R) = Fy — Ko MED (uu) The force Fo in Eq. (111) is due to the stretching or compression of the springs in their equilibrium configuration. It makes no contribution to any waves. That is why it is only the excess above Fo, namely —Ka 0/02, that appears in the second equality of Eq. (110). Example 10: Sound waves We will use Newton’s model for sound waves as discussed in Sec. 42. The system is shown in Fig. 4.10. (a) (6) Fig, 410 Emission of longitudinal sound waves. (a) Equilibrium. (b) Gen- eral configuration,198 Traveling Waves Now, in Sec. 4.2 we found the phase velocity of sound by making use of ‘Newton's analogy of sound waves with longitudinal waves on a continuous spring, We ended up by replacing the equilibrium linear mass density for the spring with the equilibrium volume mass density for the air and by re- placing Ka for the spring by the equilibrium pressure pp for air times the famous factor y. We can therefore easily guess the impedence and energy relations for sound waves. We simply replace Ka by ypo in the relations for longitudinal waves on a spring, Thus for sound waves we obtain {from Eqs. (109) and (110)] the results Z = Vyp0p, (112) and the intensity of the energy flow in a traveling sound wave, in erg/cm? sec, ai) = of MEO = 1 | opp , Hae) = 2 MEAP = F [apo HEDY. (113) The quantity y(t) is the displacement of a bit of air along the = direction from its equilibrium position, which is z. The quantity a442)/2t is the corresponding velocity. The quantity —ypo 2Y(st)/dz is equal to the force per unit area in the +z direction exerted on the air to the right of = by that to the left of z (remember z is the equilibrium position, not the in- stantaneous position, of the air), after the equilibrium value of that force, per unit area, po, has been subtracted out: EAL on R) BYat) = Po — YP. (iia) This follows from Eq, (111) for longitudinal waves on a spring, with the substitution of po for Fo and of ypo for Ka. The equilibrium pressure po does not contribute any waves. We shall dignify —ypo 2¥/2z by the name gauge pressure, Py Mat) i (ais) Po = —1Po For air at STP, we have po = 1 atm = 1.01 x 10° dyne/cm? and po = 1.29 x 10-8 gm/em*, Thus Eqs. (112) give 2, 3.32 X 104 cm/sec, (116) = 4a,g lyne/em*) Z= 428. {em/see) (uit)Sec. 4.4 199 Standard sound intensities. The intensity of a traveling sound wave is defined as the energy propagating through a unit area per unit time. A commonly used standard of sound intensity is given by Standard intensity = Io = 1 pw/cm? = 10 erg/em? sec, (118) where we used the facts that I jw = 10-6 watt and that 1 watt = 107 erg/ see. A person speaking in an average conversational tone emits about 100 erg/sec of sound energy. The mouth aperture is about 10 cm? when speaking, Therefore if you speak into one end of a mailing tube, so that all the sound energy goes in the z direction (down the tube), the sound in- tensity is about (100 erg/sec)/10 em? = Ip. Thus you can get a feeling for the magnitude of Ig by having someone talk to you through a (short) mail- ing tube, (A long tube attenuates the sound by friction on the rough card- board walls and by radiation out the sides of the tube.) If the person shouts as loud as he can into the mailing tube, the intensity is about 100. For intensities of 100 to 1000 times fo, the listener feels pain. ‘The intensity of the faintest sound that can be heard depends on its fre- quency. At about A440 (ie., 440 Hz or 440 cps), the average person’s threshold of audibility is about 10-1°%, ‘Thus the human ear has the huge dynamic range of a factor of 10%? in intensity (from 100Iy to 10-*°Ip). Nomenclature—decibel. Whenever the sound intensity increases by a factor of 10, itis said to have increased by 1 bel. Thus the dynamic range of the ear is about 12 bels. Whenever the intensity increases by a factor of 10°4, it has increased by 0.1 bel or 1 decibel. Thus db = Lbel decibel = factor of 10° = factor of 1.26 in intensity; (0 db = factor of 10 in intensity. as) A person with normal hearing can barely detect an increase of loudness of about 1 db. The following applications involve calculations of sound impedance and flux. ‘Application: RMS gauge pressure for painful sound intensity For painful sound intensity, what is the root-mean-square gauge pressure (in atmospheres)? We want the answer in atmospheres because we are interested in the question of whether the pain has the same cause as that which you feel if you swim down 15 ft or so beneath the surface of water (without pumping air into your inner ear by swallowing). We know that200 Traveling Waves 33 feet of water gives 1 atmosphere of pressure, so at a 15-ft depth the gauge pressure is about 4 atmosphere of pressure. Is this the gauge pres- sure that a painful sound wave has? Solution: Take I = 1000/o as the painful intensity. ‘Then according to Eq, (113), we have pp)" = (ZV? 1000 Zo)? (1000)(42.8)(10)}*/2 = 650 dyne/em?. This is tiny compared with 1 atm = 1.01 x 108 dyne/em?. Thus we have the interesting result that the pain is not due simply to the time-averaged pressure’s being too high, because 600 dyne/em? is 6 x 10-4 atm, which is like swimming under only $ cm of water. ‘Application: Amplitude for paintully loud sound What is the amplitude A of the excursions of the air molecules for a pain- fully loud sound? Take y{z,t) = A cos (wt — ke). Then dy/ét, squared and averaged over one cycle at fixed z, equals }02A®, Then using Eq, (113) and assuming the frequency is 440 eps we find aa Guz © 2 + 1000 - 10/42.8)1/2 ~~ ~(6.28)(440) = 25 x 10-% em =} mm. ‘Application: Amplitude for barely audible sound What is the amplitude of the air excursions for barely audible sound? Suppose the intensity is 10-20%, The amplitude is proportional to the square root of I. Thus for frequency A440, the result is the square root of 10-*8 times the result found in the application above, where we took T= 10001, Thus A = 10-525 x 10-2) 25 vio This is about the diameter of an average atom. Thus your ear is so acutely sensitive that it is capable of detecting motions of the eardrum equaling about one atomic diameter!Sec. 4,4 201 ‘Application: Audio output from typical hifi speaker ‘What is the approximate audio (sound) output (in watts) that you would expect to find from a typical hifi speaker? Assume that an average hi-fi enthusiast wishes to fill a long room that has reflecting side walls but a sound-absorbing rear wall with painfully loud traveling waves of intensity 100%. Suppose the room has cross-sectional area 10 ft X 10 ft = 105 em?. ‘At the end where the speaker is radiating, the enthusiast can let the speaker drive the entire wall as a sounding board, or he can use the first part of the room to provide a gradually tapered “horn” so as to “match impedances” between the speaker and the room, (Impedance matching will be discussed in Chap. 5.) In any case, the audio output is given by P =I: (area) = (100)fo* 105 = 107 pw. = 10 watts. Thus 10 watts of audio output is common in hi-f sets. Application: Sum of two nearly painful sounds Suppose a person can barely stand the pain of intensity 100Iy at A440, but he cannot bear the pain of 200/) at that same frequency. Suppose that this is also true for C512—he can stand 100/ but cannot stand 200%. What happens if both notes are sounded at once, each with intensity 100Ig? The total intensity is now 200Ip. Can he stand it? I don’t know. (Ihave a guess.) We hope we have convinced you that you are now equipped to answer some interesting questions about sound, We have not yet discussed stand- ing waves of sound, but they behave just like standing longitudinal waves onaslinky. Therefore you should have no difficulty in understanding the home experiments on sound if you look at them now. Example 11: Traveling waves on low-pass transmission line ‘The system for this important example is shown in Fig. 4.11. The driving force is the voltage V(t) applied at z = 0. We shall only consider the long- wavelength limit (i.e., the continuous limit), where V(a¢) and I(z,t) are con- tinuous functions of z. If the transmission line is infinitely long (or is ter minated in perfectly absorbing material), we have an open system carrying traveling waves of voltage V(z,f) and current 1(z,). If the driving voltage V(t) at the input end has the form V(t) = Vo cos wt, (120)Fig 411 Emission of traveling waves on a transmission line. 202 Traveling Waves then the voltage wave V{z;f) must equal Vo cos wt at z = 0, and hence it is given by Vist) = Vo cos (wt — kz). (121) We wish to find the relation between V(z,t) and 1(3(). It will turn out that (for a traveling wave) they are proportional to one another (and not, for example, +90 deg out of phase). We shall anticipate that result by writing Test) = Ip c0s (wt — ke) + Jo sin (ot — ha) (122) where, as we shall find, the constant Jp has value zero. Consider the first capacitor in Fig. 4.11. It has charge Q,(t), which cor- responds to the potential difference V(t), where Qx(f) = CVi(t) = CVa,t). (123) Then 2Vizat) _ dQr OE ae =h-k where in the last equality we used the continuous approximation. Thus Vent) (3 1 alent) at a. oz (124) Inserting Eqs. (121) and (122) into Eq, (124), we see that the constant Jo in Eq, (122) must indeed be zero. The remaining terms give —0eVo sin (wt — kz) = ~ (2) tok sin (ot — ka),Sec. 4.4 203 ie. (125) whence Viet) = (an Tet) Me, (126) by definition of Z. Thus the phase velocity [from Sec. 4.2, Eq. (48)] and characteristic impedance are given (in the long-wavelength or continuous or “ (145) ‘Then that is also the time-averaged intensity of sunlight at your lids, at least in the range of colors that you can detect {including some infrared detected by your lids). Assuming that the “spectra” of colors from the light bulb and the sun are not too different, we can assume that the total fiux from the sun, including the ultraviolet which we are presumably not detecting by this technique, is given by Eq. (145). Sis called the “solar constant” and is indexed in the Handbook of Physics and Chemistry. There, you will find that $ equals 1.94 “small calories” per square centi- Home experiment208 Traveling Waves meter per minute. To convert the units, we use the fact that 1 small calorie = 4.18 joule and that 1 joule/sec = 1 watt. According to the Handbook, the solar constant at the top of the earth’s atmosphere is 1,94)(4.18) joule 60 sec Assuming the Handbook value, Eq, (146), what is the rms electric field in volts/em? S= = 135 milliwatt/om?. (146) 0.135 x 107 erg/em? sec = Em (12.57)(0.135 x 10") = 4, 310 = 56 x 10-4, (ERY = 24 x 10-F esu = 2.4 x 10~ statvolt/em. But I statvolt = 300 volt thus 2 volt/em. (a7) Notice that, since all our formulas are in esu and CGS units, one should con- vert to CGS and esu, work out the answer, and then convert to whatever units suit you, Eng = Measurement of energy flux of electromagnetic radiation. In the example just given, your eyes and eyelids were used to determine the solar constant at the earth's surface. Your eyes and the heat sensors in your lids are typi- cal of many radiation detectors, in that they are square-law detectors—they respond to the incident intensity but are insensitive to phase information. (That is also the case for sound detection by your ears.) Then the appro. priate quantity to describe the incident flux is not the instantaneous value of S(z,t), but rather its time-averaged value, averaged over one oscillation cycle, (Slat) = 7 CEHaH)). (148) (For a plane wave, this time-averaged intensity is independent of position z.) A typical square-law detector consists of a band-pass filter (used to pass radiation of the desired frequency and exclude other “background” radia- tion) followed by a “sensitive clement” that absorbs all the incident flux without loss (by reflection) and gives an “output signal” proportional to (or at least dependent upon) the amount of absorbed energy. One broad class of such detectors uses a senstitive calorimeter as the energy-absorbing sensitive element. The amount of energy absorbed per unit time is deter- mined by measuring the rate of increase of temperature in some absorbingSec. 4.4 209 material or by measuring the equilibrium excess of the temperature of the sensitive element over that of a standard environment (which may be something very reproducible and very cold, like liquid helium), with the equilibrium maintained by a constant heat leak between the sensitive ele- ment and the environment. Such a detector might have a self-contained calibration device, where one would (for example) temporarily exclude the external radiation and instead turn on a current through a standard resistor contained in the sensitive element. ‘The power dissipated by the resistor is easily measured by measuring the current and potential drop and must equal the absorbed power from radiation which gives the same tempera- ture excess. There are many ingenious refinements of this method. Another class of detectors consists of photon counters. A photomulti- plier tube is a photon counter. Whenever the “photocathode” of a photo- multiplier absorbs a photon, one “photoelectron” is produced. This photoelectron is then accelerated through a potential of about 100 volts to a “multiplying dynode,” where one photoelectron produces 3 or 4 second- ary electrons. These are accelerated to a second dynode, where each pro- duces 3 or 4 more elctrons, etc. Finally, after perhaps 10 such stages of amplification, i.e., after 10 dynodes, one has about (3.5)'° electrons from each incident photon, which are then collected on a “collector plate” or “anode.” They are passed through a resistor, giving a pulse of voltage. The pulses are recorded and can be counted. Each pulse corresponds to the absorption of exactly one photon having electromagnetic energy hr, where » is the oscillation frequency, and h is Planck's constant. For a given frequency », the photomultiplier’s detection efficiency e(») can be determined by using some standard source of radiation. ‘Then the average counting rate R (in counts per second), averaged over some time interval fo, is given by the observed number of counts N divided by the time to: N+ VN to where the “standard deviation” of the number of counts, a conventional estimate of the statistical uncertainty in the measurement, is taken to be the square root of the number of counts. The measured quantity R is used to determine the energy flux in erg/cm? sec by the relation (S)aco) = bE erannace, (150) where A is the area of the photocathode (in units of em®), $ is the time- averaged intensity, ie., energy flux (in erg/cm? sec), $/hy is the time- averaged photon flux in photons/cm? sec, and e(») isthe detection efficiency. The detection efficiency is the probability that a photon incident on the photocathode will be absorbed, producing a photoelectron. Typical detec- tion efficiencies for photomultipliers range between 1 and 20%. R : (149)210 Traveling Waves ‘An example of a detector that is not a square-law detector consists of a receiving antenna, a tuned resonant circuit driven by the voltage induced in the antenna (by the traveling waves from a distant transmitter), an ampli- fier, and an oscilloscope. The oscilloscope signal shows the instantaneous phase of the incident radiation as well as its intensity; ic, it gives a signal proportional to the instantaneous electric field at the antenna, rather than the time-averaged square of the electric field. It is possible to measure the phase in an electromagnetic wave with unlimited accuracy only if you have such a huge number of photons present that you cannot distinguish the individual photon counts. Then you can “sample” the electric field as a function of time by absorbing a large number of photons during each instant.” It is not possible to determine the phase constant g of a single photon in a light wave described by Ez = A cos (wt — kz + @). Standard intensities for visible light—candlepower. The Bureau of Standards keeps something called a “standard candle.” Its brightness is about that of an ordinary candle, A standard candle, by definition, has a total output power emitted in all directions of about 20.3 milliwatts of visi- ble light (taken to be at a frequency at the peak of visibility, about 5560 A): Led = 1 candle ~ 20 milliwatts of visible light. (151) Surface brightness. Each part of the radiating surface of a candle flame radiates light in all directions. When you look at a candle flame, it looks uniformly bright over its surface. It also looks just as “bright” when you are near it as when you are far from it. That is also true for the moon or apiece of white paper. It is approximately true for the surface of a frosted incandescent light bulb. ‘The surface brightness is defined as the outgoing energy (of visible light) per unit area of surface per unit time. It can be measured in watts of visible light per unit area or in candles per unit area, An ordinary candle flame has a total surface area of about 2 cm? and a total output of about one candle. Thus the surface brightness of a candle is given by Surface brightness of candle = 1° = 05 ed/em’, (152) 2m! ‘An ordinary 40-watt, 115-volt, incandescent “Mazda” lamp with a tung- sten filament has an absolute luminous efficiency of about 1.8% (according to the Handbook of Physics and Chemistry, under “photometric quantities”; for comparison, a 100-watt lamp has about 2.5% efficiency). ‘That means that about 1.8% of the 40 watts dissipated as “J?R loss” in the filament emerges as visible radiation. Most of the rest goes into invisible radiation. (A.small amount is also lost by conduction to the base of the bulb through the input leads to the filament. Some of the infrared is absorbed in the glass envelope, as is shown by the fact that the glass envelope gets verySee. 44 21 hot—even a clear glass envelope that is almost perfectly transparent to visible radiation.) Let us estimate the surface brightness of a 40-watt bulb. (We can com- pare our result with that listed in the Handbook, 2.5 cd/em?.) My bulb has a diameter of about 6 cm. If I turn on the lamp and look at it, I see that, unlike the moon, it is not uniformly bright over the projected area. It is almost uniformly bright near the center but suffers a sudden decrease in brightness at a radius corresponding to a “full width at half-maximum brightness” of diameter about 2 em; i.., it has the appearance of a nearly uniformly bright projected surface of a sphere of 2-cm diameter. There- fore we shall approximate the light by a uniformly bright sphere of diame- ter 2.cm. The surface brightness of this “effective” sphere is the visible power divided by the surface area. The area is dar? = 4 = 12.6 cm?. The visible power is 40 watts times the efficiency, 0.0176. Expressing the answer in candles per square centimeter, cd/em?, where 1 ed/cm? is 20 mw/cm?, we find surface brightness of 40-watt bulb = —-4010.0176)_—_ Surface brightness of 40-watt bulb = 3K ONT = 2.8 cd/em?. (153) ‘The value given in the Handbook is 2.5 cd/cm?, ‘The “frosting” of an ordinary frosted light bulb (the kind considered above) consists of a roughening of the inner surface. Another common type of bulb is labeled “soft white.” Unlike an ordinary frosted bulb, a “soft white” bulb gives an almost uniformly bright projection. It looks like the moon, but brighter. Why the moon doesn't look brighter when it's closer. Let us see why the apparent surface brightness of something that emits light in all directions, like a piece of white paper (or the moon, or sun, or blue sky) does not de- pend on how far you are from the surface. Suppose you are looking at a wall that is completely covered with incandescent light bulbs having “soft white” envelopes. Let D be the surface density of bulbs, measured in bulbs per unit area of wall. By definition, the surface brightness of the wall is the same as that of a single bulb. Now, the visual sensation of brightness depends on the amount of light energy entering the eye (from the source) within a “standard cone” with its apex at the eye and with a certain angular aperture. Thus you “look at” only a small part of a bright surface at any one time, and your brightness sensation depends on the en- ergy entering your eye from the part of the surface intercepted by the standard cone. Suppose the distance from your eye to the wall is R, and suppose that you “look at” an area AA on the wall. The solid angle AQ subtended at your eye by the area AA is defined as SA Re” An = (154)212 Traveling Waves where the area AA is taken as the projected area perpendicular to your line of sight, and where AA is assumed to be small, so that any lateral dimen- sion of the region AA is very small compared with R. A given constant solid angle A@ corresponds to a cone of given apex angle. The brightness sensation is proportional to the energy entering your eye from some small constant solid angle (i., a given cone) subtended at your eye by a part of the surface. The number N of light bulbs within the constant cone of solid angle AQ is the bulb density D times the area AA: N=DAA =DAQ-R? (155) Now suppose you move farther from the wall of light bulbs, Since D and A@ are constant, the number N of light bulbs you look at goes up in pro- portion to R®. However, the intensity contributed to your sensation of brightness from a single light bulb falls off as 1/R®, because the power P of each bulb (in erg/sec) is distributed uniformly over an area 47R?, These two tendencies “cance!” one another. The number N of contribut- ing bulbs times 1/R* is constant. Thus the light intensity S (in erg/em? sec) ‘coming to your eye from a cone of fixed solid angle AQ is constant: NP _ pA aa = ae S (at eye) = P. (156) Thus the wall of light bulbs looks equally “bright” whether you are near it or far from it, as does a piece of white paper. In the above discussion we assumed that your line of sight was perpen- dicular to the wall of light bulbs. Suppose instead that the wall of bulbs is tilted at some fairly large angle to your line of sight. You might then argue that, since more bulbs are intercepted by the cone of constant solid angle, the surface should look brighter if itis tilted. However, that is not the case. The light bulbs are three-dimensional objects—spheres.. When you look at the tilted wall, the bulbs partially obscure one another. If you take two shining frosted (soft white) bulbs and partially (or wholly) obscure one by the other, there is no light contribution from the obscured bulb. The projected area of “overlap” is no brighter than the projection of a single bulb. When a sheet of white paper, or a surface sprinkled with salt, or sugar, or the surface of the moon is lit by illumination from the room or the sun, the material is illuminated to some considerable depth. Light emerging from the surface has been scattered many times. The net effect is a sur- face which reemits light something like a multilayered wall of soft-white frosted light bulbs. In order to see that much of the emerging light comes from a considerable depth, you can lay one sheet of white tissue on top of adark surface. ‘Then add a second sheet, a third, etc. The tissue gets more and more “white” as more layers are added.Sec. 4.4 213 Mlumination—foot-candle. The total light intensity (in erg/cm? sec) re- ceived at a given location is sometimes called the illumination. The illumi- nation is proportional to the surface brightness of the source and to the total solid angle subtended at that location by the source. For example, if the moon were twice as large in diameter, its surface brightness would be unchanged (since that is due to its illumination by the sun). However, it would subtend four times the (former) solid angle, and the light flux $ at the earth would be four times as great. The illumination provided by a standard candle at a distance of one foot is called a foot-candle. It is easy to show from Eq, (151) that Lfoot-candle ~ 1.8 pw/em? (of visible light). (157) According to Table 4.3, which gives some typical values of surface brightness for various interesting surfaces, a candle is about as bright as the sky. This means that if you hold a candle and look at it with the sky as a background, the candle flame should be difficult to see. Of course the color makes a difference; the candle is yellow, the sky is blue. ‘Application: Comparing 40-watt bulb and the moon This is a numerical example: How far away should a 40-watt frosted bulb of “effective” diameter 2 cm be to provide the same illumination as the full moon? According to Table 4.3, the bulb has 10 times the surface brightness of the full moon. To provide the same illumination, it should therefore subtend yp the solid angle subtended by the moon, i.e, it should subtend 1/1/10 = (1/3.2) times the ordinary angular diameter of the moon. The angular diameter of the moon is about } cm at an arm’s length of 50 om, which is rz radian. ‘Therefore, we want the bulb to subtend an angular diameter of by radian. Thus (sip) = 2 cm/R; R = 2320) = 640 cm = 6.4 meters. Of course 6.4 meters must be the distance for “full moonlight” for any 40-watt bulb, whether frosted or not. An unfrosted bulb will look brighter but will provide the same illumination, ‘Application: Satellite moon mirror Suppose that farmers in Kansas and part of Nebraska living in a circular farm region with a diameter of 330 kilometers (the east-west length of Kansas) would like to plow their fields at night by the light of the full moon at all times during the month. The Department of Agriculture comes up with the solution: an earth satellite made of an inflated plastic bag with the shape of a circular disk and with a highly reflective surface. If the farmers wanted light equivalent to full sunlight, the smallest satellite mirror to do the job would be a plane mirror having the size of the farm area in Kansas and Nebraska. That would be impossible with present satellite technology. Table 4.3 Surface brightness Surface brightness, Surface ccandle/em? Candle 05 40.watt frosted bulb 25 Clear sky 4 Moon 0.28 Sun 160,000 40-watt clear bulb "200 (at filament) ‘and Physics 45th ed, (The Chemical Rubber Co., Cleve: land, ann. pub), indexed under “photometric quantities”214 Traveling Waves But these farmers only want full moonlight. According to Table 4.3, the moon is 640,000 times less bright than the sun. It subtends about the same solid angle as the sun. Thus the farmers want 64 x 10! times less inten- sity than the sun gives. Therefore the satellite mirror can have an area 64 x 10* times smaller than the farm region and still intercept enough sun- light to satisfy the farmers. (Instead of being a plane mirror, the mirror should be slightly diverging so as to spread the sunlight over the farm region.) Thus the diameter of the mirror can be 8 X 102 times smaller than the diameter of the region. The mirror diameter required is thus 330 km/800= 410 meters. That is feasible! Problems and Home Experiments 4.1. The end of astring at z = Os driven harmonically at frequency 10 eps and with amplitude 1 em, ‘The far end of the string is infinitely far away (or else the string is “terminated” so that there are no reflections). The phase velocity is 5 meter/sec. Describe (precisely) the motion of a point on the string located 325 em downstream from the driving terminal. What is the motion of a second point located 350 cm downstream? 4.2. The phase velocity v, was introduced in describing traveling waves. It satisfies 2, =x, We also know what A and » mean for standing waves; therefore we can find 0, by studying standing waves instead of traveling waves. (a) Given a piano string of length 1 meter and with frequency A440 (440 eps) for its lowest mode, find the phase velocity (b) Show that, for a violin or piano string fixed at both ends, the period T of the Towest mode is given by the “down and back” time required for a pulse to travel from ‘one end of the string to the other and then back to the fist end, traveling always at the phase velocity. What are the periods of the higher modes? (6) Explain the result of part (b) by thinking of a blow from the piano hammer near one end of the string as generating a “wave packet” or “pulse” which propagates bback and forth at the phase velocity. Think of the Fourier analysis of the time de- ‘pendence for the motion of any fixed point on the string. You need only the kind of Fourier analysis studied in Chap. 2 @) Consider a string fixed at z= 0 and free at z = L. Show that the period of the lowest mode equals the time it takes a pulse to go down and back and down and back, i.e., down and back twice at the phase velocity. Can you explain in a simple way why this result is so different from that in part (6)? Why does the pulse have to make ‘two trips? 4.3. Assume that the piano string studied in part (a) of Prob. 4.2 has diameter 1 mm and is made of steel having volume density 7.9 gm/cm®. Find the tension in dynes and in pounds. (980 dyne = 1 gm-wt; 1 kgm weighs 2.2 Ib.) Ans. about 1100 Ib.