Suppose there are seven waves of slightly different wavelengths and amplitudes and we superimpose them (textbook is talking about wave packets). The wavelengths range from $\lambda _9 = 1/9$ to $\lambda _{15} = 1/15$. Their wavenumbers ($k = 2\pi / \lambda$) ranges from $k_9 = 18\pi$ to $k_{15} = 30\pi$. Note, the waves are of the form
$y(x,t) = Asin(kx - wt)$
The waves are all in phase at $x = 0$ and again at $x = \pm 12, \pm 24$ etc. My question is the last line. How does my textbook (from which I copied what they wrote) know that they are all in phase at $x = \pm 12$ etc. ?
If you can do this in simple terms that would be great (i.e., no fourier transform math since I have yet to learn about it). Is there some rule to know when $n$ number of waves are in phase?
Second question, my textbook goes on to say that the width of the group $\Delta x$ of superposition is just a big larger than 1/12. There's a graph of the superposition but did they determine this number from the graph or is it somehow related to the numbers given above?
Just fyi, this is a physics textbook which goes on to say that $\Delta k \Delta x \sim 1$ and $\Delta w \Delta t \sim 1$. It then uses these as a basis to state the Heisenberg uncertainty principle.