On Wed, 02 Jan 2008 16:38:36 -0800, Roy Lewallen
wrote:

2. I don't understand the mechanism which causes waves to bounce.

If I might amplify a similar concern.

Bounce is a phenomenon in everbody's experience, hence the term easily
clouds the conversation as it also not a very rigorous term in RF.

In the day to day world of, say, rubber balls, bounce implies:
1. an inelastic deformation upon collision;
2. the conversion of kinematic energy into potential energy;
3. a period or interval of holding that potential energy (or further
accumulation of potential energy);
4. the cessation of the inelastic deformation and the rebound
unwinding 1-3 above as potential energy is converted back into
kinematic energy.

So, for this "bounce" in a wave, can I observe the inelastic
deformation? (Not just the superposition of waves, but the actual
inelastic crush against resistance.) Inelastic often has loss
attending it, do you care to characterize it as elastic? If so, then
the usage of "bounce" is running against the grain of popular usage.

In this "bounce" in a wave, can I observe the time interval during
which kinematic energy is converted to potential energy and then back
to kinematic energy? (Is there a retardation in the wave migration? I
would suspect a phase change might reveal this, and not just a phase
inversion, nor a phase reversal.)

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC