Question

Define Amplitude in every day language, explain how waves behave as Amplitude changes, and explain how you could change the Amplitude of a wave.

Answer 1

The maximum value of a quantity that can possess can be defined as amplitude.The maximum range a thing can be gained in a phenomena. For example if we take a skateboarder, the maximum height that he can go from the ground is amplitude of that skating phenomena.

Amplitude can be positive and negative for a wave. In wave phenomenon a wave is nothing but transportation of energy up to some distance. If the amplitude is less for a wave then the energy that can transport is also less. If the amplitude of a wave is high then the energy of that wave is also high.

One should note that amplitude has no relation with frequency and wavelength. In visualisation of a wave if we increase the frequncy, the wavelength will change and the wave may look like it has shrinked but amplitude doesn't change. The same will happen i.e., no change in amplitude if we decrease the frequency, the wave may look like it has expanded but in visualisation amplitude is same.

As we said above, we can vary the energy of a wave to change the amplitude. It will be different for different wave phenomenons. For a light wave if we change the intensity the enrgy will vary and as the consequence the amplitude will change and light appears to be brighter. For the sound wave also if we increase intensity, energy will increase, the amplitude will be changed and sound can be heard very louder.