The Static Wave

In today’s post I might blow your mind, if you know a little bit of physics. You see, while I was writing my manuscript on lignin adhesives, the structure of lignin and reflective gravity (all in one paper: very economical), I realized that I had discovered a new kind of a wave!

You see, a wave in physics is quite clearly defined. Reading Wikipedia:

In physics, mathematics, engineering, and related fields, a wave is a propagating dynamic disturbance (change from equilibrium) of one or more quantities.

This all checks for my molecular wave of a polyheligon. However, this is followed by another sentence:

Periodic waves oscillate repeatedly about an equilibrium (resting) value at some frequency. When the entire waveform moves in one direction, it is said to be a travelling wave.

It might not be obvious what this sentence means. In short, the sentence means that all waves visibly move.  Even standing waves move up and down in place.

However, there is no physical reason why there could not be truly static waves. Static meaning that if you looked at the wave over time, its shape would not change. However, this wouldn’t mean that the particles that make up the wave wouldn’t move. It’s just that the particles would be moving like ducks in a row.

“So, isn’t a regular wave like this as well?”, you might ask, if you didn’t know your physics. Well, a regular wave isn’t like this. Rather, if you look at a regular wave from a single point, the peak of the wave moves. The reason for this isn’t well illustrated in my opinion. Most of them are variations of this video that I found by quick googling. It’s physically so confusing that I won’t show it here.  Rather, as I’ve shown in my Theory of Everything -manuscript (that was sort of peer reviewed, but really desk-rejected), the motion is really that of a helix that moves perpendicularly to the tangent of the helix, like below:

Even the above static images can be confusing.

Okay, so what’s the difference between a regular wave and a static wave? A static wave is a helix, where the particles move along the helix, whereas a regular wave is a helix where the particles move as a front where the helix is perpendicular to the helix of their motion, and with an opposite direction of rotation.

I was about to make an animation that should help to understand the difference between the two, but my poor skills with Blender resulted in me making a too short a segment of a helix to really illustrate the concept. Rather, what you see below is more like a teaser of a better illustration yet to come: 

Am I really the first one to come up with this new kind of a wave? I really can’t say. It seems weird that no one would have, but then again, this new wave doesn’t follow the logic set up for regular waves. So, I’d day there’s a decent chance this a first of its kind. Or at least the first of its kind calling itself as a wave…