A-level Physics (Advancing Physics)/Phasors
< A-level Physics (Advancing Physics)
Consider the image on the right. It shows a wave travelling through a medium. The moving blue dot represents the displacement caused to the medium by the wave. It can be seen that, if we consider any one point in the medium, it goes through a repeating pattern, moving up and down, moving faster the nearer it is to the centre of the waveform. Its height is determined by the amplitude of the wave at that point in time. This is determined by a sine wave.
A phasor
Phasors are a method of describing waves which show two things: the displacement caused to the medium, and the point in the repeating waveform which is being represented. They consist of a circle. An arrow moves round the circle anticlockwise as the wave pattern passes. For every wavelength that goes past, the arrow moves 360°, or 2πc, starting from the right, as in trigonometry. The angle of the arrow from the right is known as the phase angle, and is usually denoted θ, and the radius of the circle is usually denoted a. The height of the point at the end of the arrow represents the displacement caused by the wave to the medium, and so the amplitude of the wave at that point in time. The time taken to rotate 360° is known as the periodic time, and is usually denoted T.
Phase difference is the difference between the angles (θ) of two phasors, which represent two waves. It is never more than 180°, as, since the phasor is moving in a circle, the angle between two lines touching the circumference will always be less than or equal to 180°. It can also be expressed in terms of λ, where λ is the total wavelength (effectively, 360°). You can use trigonometry to calculate the displacement from the angle, and vice-versa, provided you know
the radius of the circle. The radius is equal to the maximum amplitude of the wave.
Phasors can be added up, just like vectors: tip-to-tail. So, for example, when two waves are superposed on each other, the phasors at each point in the reference material can be added up to give a new displacement. This explains both constructive and destructive interference as well. In destructive interference, the phasors for each wave are pointing in exactly opposite directions, and so add up to nothing at all. In constructive interference, the phasors are pointing in the same direction, so the total displacement is twice as much.
Faculty of Science
School of Physics
Phasor addition
Here we discuss phasor addition: a simple way of adding two or more simple harmonic oscillations. This is a background page to the multimedia chapter Interference.
Mass on Spring: introducing phasors
In the chapter on Simple harmonic motion, we showed how it could be represented as a projection of uniform circular motion. Now let's be explicit:
On this still from the animation above, the graph at right shows the displacement y of simple harmonic motionwith amplitude A, angular frequency ω and zero initial phase:
y = A sin ωt.
If uniform circular motion has radius A, angular frequency ω and zero initial phase, then the angle between the radius (of length A) and the x axis is ωt as shown. The rotating arm here is called a phasor, which is a combination of vector and phase, because the direction of the vector (the angle it makes with the x axis) gives the phase.
Two phasors with fixed phase
Let's see how useful this phasor representation is when we add simple harmonic motions having the same frequency but different phase.
Here we have the brown phasor with magnitude A and initial phase 0
y1 = A sin ωt
and the green one with magnitude A and initial phase φ:
y2 = B sin (ωt + φ).
We say y2 is ahead of y1 by φ or more commonly, y2 leads y1 by φ.
From vector addition, we can see that the red phasor is the sum of the brown and the green ones. The amplitude and phase of the red phasor can then be obtained by trigonometry or geometry.
Mixing two sounds
This film clip from the chapter Interference shows an example of the addition of two sine waves with varying amplitude and phase.
Both loudspeakers are being driven by the same oscillator and, assuming that the speakers are similar, they each output the same sound wave. The one that is closer to the camera and microphone will be both louder (larger amplitude) and ahead in phase. Adding such signals becomes a little more complicated.
Constructive and desctructive interference
When one adds two simple harmonic motions having the same frequency and different phase, the resultant amplitude depends on their relative phase, on the angle between the two phasors. In this animation, we vary the relative phase to show the effect.
Here, the phasor diagram shows that the maximum amplitude occurs when the two are in phase: this is called constructive interference. The minimum sum arises when they are 180° out of phase, which is called destructive interference.
What if the frequencies are different?
If one simple harmonic oscillation has angular frequency ω1 and the other angular frequency ω2, we could say that the second leads the first by a variable angle φ, where dφ/dt = ω2 − ω1. In general, this representation doesn't usually lead to substantial simplification. However, an interesting phenomenon arises when
f2/f1 = ω2/ω1 = m/n, where m and n are small integers.
This is interesting, because it is also the condition for musical consonance. In the example below, the ratio is 3/2, which in music is the perfect fifth, one of the most harmonious consonances.
This animation shows how consonance may be demonstrated using Lissajous figures, in which one harmonic oscillation is plotted as the y coordinate and the other as the x coordinate. We have a separate page on Lissajous figures.
Applications
Phasor sums are used to analyse interference and consonance in sound, the interference and diffraction of waves in general and in AC electricity.