Try it on paper first. A hint, the key idea and the worked solution are here when you need them.
A wave travels along a rope. Graph (a) shows the whole rope at . Graph (b) shows how the point of the rope at moves with time.
A wave moving towards is , with and . The wave speed is . A particle has the velocity , at most .
Have you tried it?
Work it out on paper first. It is fine to get stuck or make a mistake: that is how we learn. When you are ready, go through the solution one step at a time, and check each step against your own.
Step 1. Read the graphs. The amplitude is . Graph (a) repeats every , so . Graph (b) repeats every , so .
Step 2. Speed. .
Step 3. Direction. Graph (b) shows that the point at moves down first. In graph (a) the rope to the right of is above the axis, and the rope to the left would be below it. The point at takes the shape of the rope that arrives next. It goes down, so the rope arriving next comes from the left. The wave travels towards . As a check, fits both graphs: at it is , and at it is .
Step 4. Phase difference. , which is .
Watch out. A snapshot alone cannot tell the direction. You need the history of one point too, or a second snapshot.
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