Abstract
II. IN the last article, a general method of measuring the velocity at which a disturbance is propagated was described. It depended on being able to produce a regular succession of disturbances at equal intervals of time. These were made to measure their own velocity by reflecting them at an obstacle. Then, by the interference of the incident and reflected waves, a succession of loops and nodes are produced at intervals of half the distance a disturbance is propagated during the time between two disturbances. It is a general method applicable to any sort of disturbance that takes time to get from one place to another. It has been applied over and over again to measure the rate at which various kinds of disturbance are propagated in solids, liquids, and gases. It was applied in a modified form years ago, to measure the length of a wave of light; and, within the last year, some of the most beautiful experiments on photography ever described are applications of this principle by Herr Wiener and M. Lippmann.
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Continued from vol. xliii. p. 538.
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Hertz's Experiments1. Nature 44, 12–14 (1891). https://doi.org/10.1038/044012a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/044012a0