An impulsive point excitation in a linear, nondispersive wave medium can produce an after‐signal, which has been called a ‘‘wake’’ in the mathematical physics literature. Relations are derived between such wakes and the dimensionality of the space by regarding a point source in space of dimensionality N−2 as a line source in N−1 dimensions and as a plane source in N dimensions. The ‘‘magic’’ of one and three dimensions is discussed from a new point of view.
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© 1993 American Association of Physics Teachers.
1993
American Association of Physics Teachers
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