Zerdly

Wave Table

An interference explorer. Two sources send out ripples; where crests meet crests the water rises higher, and where crests meet troughs it stays still. Move the sources and change their timing to see the pattern shift.

Place two wave sources, change their phase and spacing, and watch where the waves add up and cancel out.

FreeOn this device

S1S2D1D2
Source 1
Source 2
Detector 1 at (16, 16): 0.00
Detector 2 at (22, 16): 0.00

An illustrative pattern from a formula: no fading with distance, no reflections, no dispersion. Traces keep the last 600 samples of simulation time.

t = 0.00 s · coherent: 0.5 Hz, wavelength 4 · detectors: 1: -1.89, 2: -0.99.

Controls

  • Drag a source (S) or detector (D) across the field, or type exact x and y values.
  • Set each source's phase and amplitude, and the shared frequency and wavelength — or tick Independent sources to give each its own frequency.
  • Pause and Step control simulation time; Displacement now and Peak amplitude switch views; export the detector traces as CSV or the field as an image.

The rules

  • Each point adds the two waves: amplitude × sin(k × distance − ω × time + phase).
  • Equal sources in phase reinforce each other halfway between them; at 180° they cancel there exactly.
  • This is an illustrative pattern from a formula: the waves don't fade with distance, reflect or spread out differently by frequency.

Scoring, saving and limits

There is no score — experiments ask questions you can answer by watching the field and the detector traces.

Your source and detector setup and view are kept on this device only. Download a backup to move them.

Colours show signed displacement (red up, blue down), not depth. The field is computed on a 160 × 100 grid and enlarged. Detector traces keep the last 600 samples.

Questions

Why are there still lines in the pattern?
Along them the two waves always arrive exactly half a wavelength out of step, so they cancel at every moment.
What does independent mode change?
With different frequencies the waves slip in and out of step, so the still lines drift instead of staying put.
Is this how water really behaves?
Only roughly. Real ripples fade and reflect; this view leaves those out to show interference clearly.