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> So I have a small question for the POV-Ray memetic search engine: How much
> energy does a wave have?
What sort of wave?
> I actually can't figure this one out. Presumably the energy of a wave is a
> function of its amplitude, but I have a feeling frequency is involved as
> well. (But I'm not sure in which polarity.)
The energy of a photon is easy to look up, and depends only on the
wavelength (lower wavelength = more energy). Obviously then you can figure
out how many photons are required for a certain power level, and then how
much time is needed to transfer a given amount of energy.
In electric circuits you can figure out instantaneous power flow by using
P=IV. Then you can integrate this power over time to get energy. For
example a sine wave has a known result, because it is so common in AC
circuits, that is where RMS voltage/current comes from.
For water waves, I would imagine you need to look at the potential energy of
the water as it moves up and down, look up Wave Energy on wikipedia - it has
some formulas and example calculations.
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