Interference

=**What is interference?**=

Interference is how waves act when they come into contact with each other. This is something that occurs in all types of waves, including sound waves. The two kinds of interference are constructive and destructive. Constructive interference occurs when waves come into contact that are in phase. When they pass over one another, the amplitudes of the two waves are added to create one wave with an amplitude equal to the sum of the amplitudes of the two waves. The same occurs in destructive interference, except the resulting wave is equal to the difference in amplitude of the waves. This occurs when the waves coming in contact are out of phase.

Watch the following film to **see** what you **hear** when sound waves interact. media type="file" key="Interference of Sound Waves.m4v"

interference