Wave Interference Ripple Tank (2D)

This 2D companion strips the ripple tank down to a top-down view built for reading the interference mathematics directly: two to five point sources each emit continuous circular waves, and at every point on the tank the true displacement is the sum y = Σ A·sin(k·ri − ωt + φi) / (1 + ri·decay) computed fresh every frame — the bright and dark bands you see are genuine constructive and destructive interference, not a pre-baked texture. Source separation, wavelength, frequency, amplitude, phase offset and damping are all live sliders, and clicking anywhere on the tank drops a probe point that reports the exact path difference Δr between the two primary sources, Δr/λ, the resulting phase difference, and whether that point sits on a bright or dark fringe — the same path-difference reasoning used to explain Young's double-slit experiment, applied here to water waves.