What do you mean by phase of a wave? And phase difference? Waves have always con

Question

What do you mean by phase of a wave? And phase difference? Waves have always confused me as it's too difficult to visualize them. I am no good at waves mechanics, so if anyone could explain in simpler term? Also if anyone could direct me to complete solution to my problem as to study waves from where? How do you visualize it? How did you study and understand? I have been meaning to ask this question for quite a time but always thought it would be too dumb. Thank you and I am eagerly waiting for an answer and your valuable suggestion

Explanation / Answer

Here is a graph of a sine function, it is a function of the angle which goes from 0 to two pi and the value of sine(theta) is bounded by 0 and 1.

This function of theta carried on further on the x axis repeats itself every 2pi.

From the graphic one can see that it looks like a wave, and in truth sines ( and cosines) come as solutions of a number of wave equations, where the variable is a function of space and time.

amplitude

here phi (?) is a "phase" . It is a constant that tells at what value the sine function has when t=0 and x=0.

If one happens to have two waves ovelapping, then the ?1-?2 of the functions is the phase difference of the two waves. How much they differ at the beginning (x=0 and t=0), and this phase difference is evidently kept all the way through.

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