Aren standing waves when theres destructive interference? What are standing waves exactly?
Actually there is both destructive and constructive interference happening in standing wave at different times (in class I drew a point in time for constructive interference). The overall pattern when the reflectors are in the right configuration is one where the positive and negative parts of the wave a “flip-flopping” back and forth in time, and there’s a “node” in the center that does not move. It’s easiest to imagine in the mechanical analogy of a jump rope connected to the wall and wiggled up and down in such a way that a stable pattern is formed. This kind of wave is called a standing wave because it does not move forward or backward like a plane wave.
