Wave Superposition Physics Playground p5.js + Tone.js

The constructive preset has two sine waves of amplitude fifty, equal frequency and equal direction, both with phase zero. At a position where their sine value is one, each contributes fifty and the sum is one hundred. The instantaneous sum is computed point by point, not by adding two unrelated peak locations. The default destructive preset changes the second phase to one hundred eighty degrees. Sine of alpha plus pi is minus sine alpha. Equal fifty-unit waves cancel in their sum, even though each component continues moving. If one amplitude becomes thirty, the remaining waveform has amplitude twenty instead of zero. Cancellation requires matching amplitude as well as phase. The source’s plotted wave angle uses zero point zero two times x times direction, minus zero point zero five times the frequency control times animation time. Its beat preset uses frequency controls two and two point three, so the angular-rate difference in that model is zero point zero one five per animation-time unit. These are not directly calibrated hertz. The separate audio path uses a base pitch of two hundred twenty. Keep the plotted phase equation separate from audio pitch and real laboratory measurements.