Complex amplitude

Complex amplitude is like when you play with a toy car and you give it a push. The push can be strong or weak, and it can be in different directions. In the same way, when we talk about waves, we can give them a kind of push, called an amplitude. This push is a number that tells us how strong the wave is.

But some waves are more complicated than a simple push. They can have different parts that push in different directions and at different strengths. When we want to describe these waves, we need a special kind of number that has two parts, called a complex number.

A complex number is like a hidden treasure map, with two pieces of information that we need to figure out where the treasure is. The first piece is the real part, which tells us how far to go east or west. The second piece is the imaginary part, which tells us how far to go north or south.

So when we talk about complex amplitude for a wave, we mean that the wave has a special kind of "push" that is described by a complex number. This complex number tells us how strong the wave is in different directions, and it helps us understand complicated waves that have many different parts.