By: Amy, David and Maurice Reflection By: Amy, David and Maurice

Reflection: Reflection is the change in direction of a wavefront at an interface between two different media so that the wavefront returns into the medium from which it originated. When a longitudinal sound wave strikes a flat surface, sound is reflected in a coherent manner provided that the dimension of the reflective surface is large compared to the wavelength of the sound.

Wave Reflection off a “hard” or “fixed” end an incident wave moves towards the fixed end

When the wave reflects from the fixed end, the phase of the reflected pulse is opposite to the phase of the incident pulse

Wave Reflection off a “free” or “soft” end An incident wave moves towards the open end

The reflected wave returns, when the wave reflects from an open end the phase of the reflected wave is the same as the phase of the incident wave.