Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematical-methods-ii-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2014-resit/7/solution

Choose both waves as sinusoids with a common zero phase and amplitude . The trigonometric sum identity gives
The slowly varying wave envelope has constant phase when is constant. Its speed is , and in the close-frequency limit the group velocity is
It describes the motion of a narrow-band envelope in a medium where the constituent waves retain a coherent packet interpretation; it is not an unconditional signal-speed theorem in strongly absorbing or anomalously dispersive media. The carrier phase velocity is . In a nondispersive medium, with constant , so .

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