Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-physics-a-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2012/paper-2/section-a/3/solution

Reading the time axis, the rapid oscillation has period about , while successive envelope maxima are about apart. The envelope stays nonzero and has a slowly sinusoidal modulation about a positive mean. The corresponding amplitude-modulation model is , with . Product-to-sum gives
Thus the intended positive-frequency components are , and . The envelope frequency is not itself a separate additive displacement component. These values use the illustrated sinusoidal-modulation interpretation; a finite qualitative trace alone does not uniquely specify every possible spectral component.

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