Use the prescribed harmonic convention . For a propagating acoustic plane wave, let and . The incident and reflected pressure amplitudes in the upper half-space have vertical factors and respectively:
The linear homentropic acoustic equations imply . At the surface, the normal velocity is therefore , while the pressure amplitude is . The surface acoustic impedance condition gives
Here is the normal acoustic impedance; the angle in this question is measured from the horizontal, not the normal. For a passive acoustic impedance, the mean power absorbed per unit area is . The four limiting cases have distinct meanings: