Regarding destructive interference of light waves, here's an interesting bit I found:
Anti-reflective coating - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Anti-reflective coating - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
So one's ears are always conveniently in the destructive area?
I don't quite understand what you're asking. In case of no interference there is an equal power level everywhere, interference redistributes the power, making 0 power in one spot, but double power in the other.Bluefan-if the power is now zero in some places, shouldn't the power that used to be there now all exist in a smaller area?
My shooting earplugs are really cool like that though: they lessen loud noises and amplify quiet noises, bringing everything to the same volume. Very cool stuff, well engineered.
What you are looking at is the field, and the power goes with the field squared, so that peak is 4 times as high in power than a single source, or double the power of the two sources combined. Average the 4 times higher peak with the periods of 0, and you end up with 2, the combined power of two sources.OK, now hold on-let's say the brown/green wave peaks at 1. During the constructive period, it has twice the energy (peaks at 2). This makes sense as there are twice as many sources. However, for just as much time, it has zero energy! So the total energy stays exactly the same, it's just that it's lumped together into periods (or physical places) of all or nothing (but with the same average amplitude as before). That doesn't make any sense.