Impedance-PhysicsAstronomy.pdfVIP

Impedance A very useful concept for understanding the flow of energy is called the impedance. Energy flow, or the rate at which energy is being used, is called power. If you push on a moving object with a force F and it moves with velocity v then the rate of energy transfer (the power) is equal to the force multiplied by the velocity. P=Fv Of course, just how fast the object moves will depend on the force you apply. The two are not independent. For a harmonic force, the ratio of force to velocity tells you how hard it is to move the object – this depends both on how much inertia the object has and on how strong the restoring force is. Force Z velocity NOTE that the velocity in this equation when we talk about waves is the particle velocity – the velocity of the displacement – not the propagation velocity of the wave. Example 1 A simple example of impedance that does not involve waves, is viscosity. If you move an object through a viscous medium (like molasses) it takes a constant force to maintain a constant velocity. This is expressed by the equation: F v =⋅η The constant η is called the viscosity. You can see that viscous media have an impedance which is equal to the viscosity. F Z η v Wave impedance As a sound wave propagates along, each piece of the material transfers the energy to the next in a kind of bucket brigade fashion. From a physics point of view, as long as the impedance does not change, the propagation of the wave is not disturbed. This is what makes the impedance important. At an interface between two media (for example when sound hits a wall) you often what to k