From beats to wave packets: An AI-assisted, smartphone-based inquiry into acoustic superposition

• Mrinal Kanti Pal ^[1] ; Sanjoy Kumar Pal ^[2] ; Pradipta Panchadhyayee ^[3]
  1. [1] Prabhat Kumar College, Contai, Purba Medinipur, India
  2. [2] Anandapur High School, Anandapur, Paschim Medinipur, India
  3. [3] Prabhat Kumar College, Contai, Purba Medinipur, India, and Institute of Astronomy Space and Earth Science, Kolkata, India;

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• Localización: The Physics Teacher, ISSN 0031-921X, Vol. 64, Nº. 7, 2026, págs. 668-669
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • Traditional instruction rarely connects acoustic beats with wave-packet formation. Here, three closely spaced tones (195, 200, and 205 Hz) are superimposed, recorded using a smartphone, and examined through AI-assisted time- and frequency-domain analysis.1–3 The Fourier spectrum resolves the constituent frequencies, while the waveform displays a periodically recurring structured envelope consistent with linear superposition. Although not a genuinely localized wave packet, the signal provides a low-cost and accessible classroom bridge from beats to wave packet-like behavior.