World of Wave

[Sriman Dutta]

Its really WoW that our observable world is a World of Wave. Almost all kinds of energy transfer takes place through wave motion. Sound travels in the form of waves through a medium. Light too travels as EM waves. Even pendulum, AC current, simple spring motion are found to be composed of periodic wave motion.

This makes me ask why is wave motion so dominant over others? Any thoughts?

[Bender]

Math.

Because a sine wave is the solution to this, very common differential equation, which describes a surprisingly large amount of physical phenomena:

 

[math] \frac{d^2u}{dx^2} + \omega^2u = 0. [/math]

 

Other common equations result in exponential functions or a combination of both, which can also be found everywhere.

Edited December 13, 2016 by Bender

[Sriman Dutta]

So, perhaps nature loves math.

[sethoflagos]

So, perhaps nature loves math.

 

Nature is certainly very fond of spheres.

 

.....and the continuity of conserved quantities.

[swansont]

Physicists are (in)famous for modeling everything as a harmonic oscillator, because many things looks like harmonic oscillators (at least to a first-order approximation)

 

 

Nature is certainly very fond of spheres.

 

 

 

Spheres tend to minimize the energy of a configuration, and nature loves to go to a minimum energy state.

[Sriman Dutta]

Thanks swansot.